


Dangan Ronpa: Another IF

by MHJoker4Ever



Series: Another IF [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Drama, Eventual Romance, F/M, Friendship, Hope vs. Despair, Hurt/Comfort, Murder Mystery, Mystery, Suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:35:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 30
Words: 256,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23997607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MHJoker4Ever/pseuds/MHJoker4Ever
Summary: There's a lot of what-ifs out there. Many, many possibilities. Some even speculate about branching timelines because of all the different choices and actions that can be taken.In this one, Sayaka Maizono didn't try to go through with her plans for murder. For better or for worse, Makoto Naegi helped her keep it together that night, and he didn't even know.... But derailing the Despair train is not so easy. Even if Sayaka didn't fire the first shot, it was still inevitable to go off. That's just how the Killing Game operated... It was designed to break even the sturdiest of souls, the strongest of minds. The weak would be preyed on.But just as inevitable as Despair could be... so, too, could Hope.Loose sequel to "A Soft Heart to Protect" - you don't have to read to understand the gist, but references may come up. New murders, new survivors, possibly even new motives in the future.
Relationships: Celestia Ludenberg & Naegi Makoto, Celestia Ludenberg/Naegi Makoto, Ikusaba Mukuro & Naegi Makoto, Ikusaba Mukuro/Naegi Makoto, Maizono Sayaka & Naegi Makoto, Maizono Sayaka/Naegi Makoto
Series: Another IF [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1942276
Comments: 735
Kudos: 384





	1. Chapter 1, Part 1: To Survive

Makoto woke up feeling slightly better than he had the day before. It wasn’t like a super amazing feeling, but at the least, it was better than his initial reaction to seeing that **video** yesterday… He still intended to find out what happened to his family, but he wasn’t going to play Monokuma’s game to do it. Makoto had promised, after all.

… To himself **and** to Sayaka…

“Ah, good morning, Makoto!” The idol greeted immediately after he rang her doorbell. Based off her tone and appearance, Sayaka seemed to be doing a lot better, too. Her voice was jovial, her face was beaming, and her skin was a lot less pale.

Makoto was relieved more than words could describe. Fifth day of their imprisonment, and he was already worried this twisted “school life” would shatter his friend like glass. She’d been so distraught, last night.

_‘I’m glad I could help, Maizono-san…’_ Naegi thought to himself as he slowly relaxed and enjoyed their walk to the cafeteria together. It was small things like this that made the life here bearable. Makoto was warming up to the others, but to have someone here that he ‘knew’… Someone that clearly knew him, and wanted to be his friend. Someone he could talk with routinely, and stick to when everything else just seemed so surreal… All of these were reassurances for the luckster.

… It made sense that his own presence gave just as much comfort to Maizono. He could empathize with her perfectly.

“Good morning to you, Naegi! Maizono!” Ishimaru cheerfully greeted when they got to the cafeteria. “Naegi, listen to this! I was the first to be here, this morning!”

Not too far away, Fujisaki giggled.

“Hehe! Good morning!”

“Mornin’!” Asahina echoed the others. Near her, Sakura had her arms crossed and was grinning.

“Early to rise, I see…”

As he and Sayaka settled in their own seats across from each other, Naegi mused that the first wave of students here tended to be in the “students with good habits” category. And the ones that showed up a bit late…

“’Sup…” Mondo greeted everyone as he sat down, propping his legs up on the table and crossing them, to Ishimaru’s sharp disapproval.

“Sorry I’m laaate~!” Junko apologized eccentrically. “Took a bit longer to do my makeup than usual!”

“Oh dear, please do excuse my tardiness… I was so engaged in my morning work.” Yamada rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

These were the students with a slightly loose adherence to time, and Naegi knew most high schoolers fell into this category.

And then, there were the ones who make everyone wait, drifting in unfashionably late…

“Sorry I’m late.” Kyoko crossed her arms, offering up no excuses.

“Good morning, everyone.” Celes greeted pleasantly.

“My bad, my bad… I slept in!” Leon chuckled, rubbing the back of his head.

“Wh-Whaaat?! Is there something wrong with me being late?” Fukawa leered at everyone equally.

Hagakure rubbed under his nose innocently.

“I didn’t oversleep—I just couldn’t find my way, dude. I got lost in the Bermuda Triangle!”

Naegi knew these were the students to whom time held no meaning, living at their own pace, unconcerned about others. As if accentuating this point, Togami finally drifted in, making all fifteen of them accounted for.

“What? Did something happen?” The scion asked soon after Ishimaru wondered aloud about his absence. Any potential tension regarding a possible incident evaporated. Despite Monokuma’s first “motive”, they’d all survived the night, no worse for wear.

Ishimaru leaned on the table and looked around at the assembled class.

“Alright, everyone! I know tensions may have been high yesterday, but I must reiterate: we can get through this, **together**! We mustn’t give into Monokuma’s demands! Monokuma hasn’t killed us yet, so we still have a **choice**! Do not let him trick you thinking that we do **not**!”

The Ultimate Prefect’s impassioned speech was met with varied reactions, from vigorous, boisterous agreement, to apathy, to even contemptuous disdain. Makoto’s eyes peeled over to Togami, who had snorted in utter disbelief. Ishimaru, too, was drawn to the negative reaction, and narrowed his eyes at the heir.

“I apologize, Togami! Was something I said amusing?!”

Togami rolled his eyes, arms crossed and looking to the side.

“Your bleeding heart drivel is pointless. Say it as many times as you want, but you know deep down that you’re only saying it out of fear. You’re afraid of what Monokuma has done, and you’re afraid that same fear is shared by your ‘comrades’… which it clearly is, if their reactions from yesterday are anything to go by.” Togami smirked as his words clearly put everyone on edge. The frail atmosphere of camaraderie evaporated immediately.

Makoto’s brows knit together in concern. What was Togami driving at? Why was he bringing this up at all? Seeing Sayaka’s hands quivering on the table, he could see the heir’s pointed words were having an effect on her, as well. Comfortingly, he laced his fingers with hers and shot her a reassuring grin. Sayaka looked down at their hands before looking back up at him with a wry grin of her own, before giving a small, grateful nod.

“Our loved ones were taken hostage, of **course** we would be alarmed about that!” Ishimaru shot back in reply. “What are you trying to say?!”

Togami huffed exasperatedly.

“Are you incapable of higher reasoning? Oi vey… Alright, I’ll spell it out for you.” Togami stood up, walked toward Ishimaru before stopping half way, and spoke with disdainful authority. “The only reason you’re harping about ‘camaraderie’ is that you’re afraid to trust the people around you… You yourself may have lulled yourself into a false sense of security with this motive – ‘Oh, I’ll **never** kill someone over a video!’ … But you can’t say that is true for everyone else. And who knows? You may even betray yourself, if the pressure gets to you.”

Togami sneered, and then turned his back to Ishimaru, returning to his seat.

“The lines in the sand are still drawn. The rules still hang above our heads. If you want out, murder somebody. And if you’re too weak to manage that much… you will probably die.”

Ishimaru flinched back at Togami’s rebuttal, unsure exactly how to respond. As callous and twisted as his logic was, it still held some weight that they couldn’t just dismiss out of hand.

“That’s stupid…!” Asahina blurted out heatedly, rising out of her own seat, fists clenched at her sides. “Even if I dunno what Monokuma did to my brother, I’m not gonna kill anyone to find out! That’s crossing a line…! **Way** over the line…! It’s stupid!!”

Junko crossed her arms and tilted her head slightly, eyes narrowing at Togami.

“Y-Yeah…! Just what do you think human life is worth, huh?!”

Togami just sneered in response.

“I really don’t think you want me to answer that…”

“It appears someone wasn’t listening, yesterday…” Celes leaned intimidatingly towards Asahina. “Laying bare your weaknesses like that… is going to get you killed.”

Asahina raised her fist at the gambler challengingly.

“Wh-What are you talking about?!”

Celes placed her hands on her hips, looking to the side disinterestedly.

“You just told us what was in your video… did you not? Now we know what is at stake for you, and only have to assume to what lengths you will go to rescue your brother… A foolish move on your part.”

Yamada stroked his chin thoughtfully.

“Aoi Asahina-san should have cast ‘See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil’ spell, rank two!”

Leon had his arms crossed with an unimpressed scowl.

“Yeah, well… The chick seemed like an airhead, anyway…”

“Airhead?!” Asahina shrieked indignantly. “How many times do I have to tell you people?! No one deserves to die over something so stupid…!”

Sakura clasped a reassuring hand on Asahina’s shoulder.

“Calm yourself, Asahina… Do not fall into their pace.” The fighter glowered at Celes and Togami. “Ishimaru was quite correct that we should remain united. In-fighting like this will only play into the Mastermind’s hands. Even if we do not know each other well, we should give each other the benefit of the doubt. Ending a human life is not to be taken lightly…”

Sakura’s words carried just as much weight as Togami’s had. Though the air was still tense from all the heated words, many seemed to be placated by these sentiments. Makoto, Sayaka, Fujisaki, and Asahina smiled at Oogami’s speech; Leon and Junko’s shoulders noticeably loosened; Yamada and Ishimaru slumped in relief; Mondo, who had looked ready to pound Togami’s face in again, managed to reel his anger back in; Hagakure ran a hand through his untamable hair and grinned; Kyoko stayed thoughtfully silent. Togami, Fukawa, and Celes were the only real holdouts, but they seemed content to hold their tongues for now.

“U-Um…” Fujisaki suddenly spoke up nervously, gaining the main table’s attention. “I-If it’s okay to talk about what was on our videos, maybe we should get that all out in the open? Th-That way… we can maybe start to learn more about each other…?”

Though many reacted to Fujisaki’s proposal in their own ways, Ishimaru was among the first to straighten his posture at the thought of it.

“Yes… Yes, that is an excellent suggestion, Fujisaki!” Ishimaru grinned widely, spreading out his hands amicably. “I shall go first! On my video-”

“N-Nobody wants to hear y-your sob story…!” Fukawa hissed, cutting the prefect off. Ishimaru deflated right away at being shot down.

“True enough…” Leon muttered, shaking his head. “I don’t feel comfortable just sharin’ stuff like that out loud… Somebody could try to use that against me, y’know?”

Makoto’s brow furrowed at that logic.

“How would they use it…?”

Sayaka opened her mouth, more than happy to break it lightly to her friend. However, Kirigiri bluntly beat her to it.

“He’s saying that someone could use that knowledge as a trap to lure in and murder you. A rather common tactic; they don’t even have to genuinely hold knowledge about that person in your video, they just have to promise they can provide it.”

Makoto sagged at this point of reasoning. Could… Could people really do that? He supposed there were criminals out there who could… He just didn’t want to believe anybody in **here** could… They were teenagers, after all!

Sayaka frowned at seeing Kyoko’s bluntness demoralize Naegi. She herself knew all too well that people could lie just as easily as they breathed air, that didn’t give the mysterious girl the right to close off all avenues of opening up to their classmates.

“Even so…” Sayaka challenged the lilac-haired girl. “If some of us are fine with sharing, we can just do it with others like us! Those who don’t want to can just do their own thing.”

Makoto found himself smiling gratefully at the idol, with a touch of self-depreciation to it. Why hadn’t he thought of that?

Kyoko merely crossed her arms in response, looking off to the side and retaining her neutral gaze.

“You may do as you wish. Being too open may backfire on you… Yet it’s still your choice.”

Togami stood up from his chair again and made to leave.

“Well, be unbearably naïve all you want… Leave me out of your foolishness.” The heir stalked out.

And with his departure, that seemed to signal the end for the breakfast meeting. Celes politely took her own leave, Mondo brusquely left, and Fukawa scampered out nervously. Ishimaru’s lips formed a slightly twitchy, unsure grin.

“W-Well… I guess, with that, ah… Meeting is… adjourned…” He sighed tiredly as Leon, Yamada, and Hagakure started to leave as well.

“Don’t worry so much, or you’ll leak ectoplasm, dude!” Hagakure laughed carefreely. “I’m sure we’ll all be let out soon! It’s a pretty good show they’re putting on!”

Those remaining largely ignored the clairvoyant’s blissful ignorance. At this point, it’d probably take a murder for the idiot to finally understand the Hell that they were in… And nobody wanted to dwell on that grim possibility…

~*~

After breakfast, they all split off to do their own things, as had become the norm. Junko tagged along with Naegi and Maizono to the A/V Room. It was an uneventful trip, and they didn’t really say much. The silence was comfortable enough, though; they were just unsure of what to say, since Junko didn’t know them as well and vice versa.

When they got to the A/V Room, Junko seemed to change that.

“So, I’m kinda curious. What’s your guys’ story, exactly?” Junko hopped up on one of the desks and swung her legs back and forth as Naegi fished out his DVD. "You seem pretty buddy-buddy for having ‘just met’. I mean, I **thought** we were all strangers.”

”… Oh.“ Makoto quirked an eyebrow at the pop idol. Did she sound a little relieved just now, or was that just him? “We went to the same middle school. Sixth Black Root Middle School.”

Junko crossed her arms and tilted her head curiously.

“Really? Weren’t you, like, an idol by that point, though? You telling me Makoto McAverage Naegi was ‘allowed’ to hang out with you by all the other cool kids?”

Naegi sweatdropped as his friend’s stare became… rather intense as she stared at Junko. Something definitely seemed to be going on here, but it was going over his head for the time being…

“Naegi might be 'ordinary’, but he was way more interesting than all the other popular kids! Not being able to talk with him has been one of my biggest regrets…” The idol trailed off sadly, and Naegi had a feeling he knew which memory she was dwelling on.

“Huuuh? So you went to the same middle school, but you didn’t even talk? I’m still confused here~...”

Naegi’s eyes panned between the two girls as some staredown seemed to be happening now. Mostly from Sayaka’s corner, as she didn’t seem to want to share “that” memory that was apparently special for both of them. But even the model seemed pretty darn curious about their connection for someone they’d only “known” for a handful of days…

“Naegi… did a kind thing that no one else would do, and I happened to see it.” The idol replied guardedly. Makoto didn’t know why she was being vague, but he wouldn’t say anything if she didn’t want to share.

Junko opened her mouth again, probably to inquire more, but this time Naegi played peacemaker and held up his DVD.

“L-Let’s just watch the DVDs, okay? I’ll go first.” Naegi felt a little bad as Junko pouted, but the relieved smile that Sayaka shot him was encouragement enough. He popped in the disc, and the “movie” started up.

They spent a while in that A/V Room. Even though the videos were brief, the three of them were pretty talkative about the contents, and why the people shown were important to them. Naegi obviously had his family - his sister and parents. Sayaka had her bandmates. And Junko apparently had an older sister.

Naegi hadn’t even known Junko Enoshima had a sister. That never came up in any of the magazines, from what he’d seen. Apparently, that was intentional; Junko kept quiet about any family or friends so that the paparazzi wouldn’t hound them. That made sense to the Luckster. Being a model, Junko would know what magazines and reporters could be like. Even Sayaka seemed placated by Junko’s answer.

As they were beginning to shift the topic of discussion a little more onto Junko and about her past, the A/V Room door swung open, and Asahina came bursting into the room with a terrified expression.

"Y-You guys! Come quick! S-Something bad happened!”

“Something…” Sayaka trailed off.

“… bad?” Naegi unwittingly finished for her. They all felt unease now, and they were all hoping it wasn’t the worst case scenario…

“Th-The laundry room!” Aoi shook her head with some tears trailing down her cheeks. “Look, you’ll understand when you get there! C'mon!”

They didn’t need any more urging than that, and the four of them took off in a dead run for the laundry room.

~*~

When they got there, it felt like all of the oxygen got sucked out of Naegi’s lungs. It was like running straight into a brick wall. Time came to a horrifying, dreadful halt as they took in the scene. There, her head and arm hanging out of one of the washing machines… was Touko Fukawa. They couldn’t see a pool of blood, but just by looking at her pale complexion and her face, they knew she had passed on.

“Wh-What is…” Naegi mumbled as Sayaka gave an ear-splitting shriek. Junko didn’t look like she was faring much better as she was tensed up and taking a step back with a grimace on her face.

Suddenly, there was a chiming, and Naegi’s eyes snapped to the monitor that sparked to life and showed Monokuma in his usual infuriating attitude.

“Ahem! This is a school announcement. A body has been discovered~! Please get your cute little asses over to the laundry room. Thank you~.” Just as abruptly as it had turned on, the monitor went dark.

Too many things was happening at once for Naegi to process. Moments after the announcement, Sakura came running into the room with Leon and Mondo.

“Sakura?!” Naegi let out a startled yelp.

“We were the first to see the body!” Aoi fretfully explained. “We decided to split up and find as many of you as we could!”

Sakura’s face was set into a grim scowl.

“With that announcement, however, it will not be necessary for us to gather everyone.”

Leon’s hands sprang to his head in a panic.

“How the hell can you guys be so calm?! There’s a friggin’ **body**!”

“Of **course** we know that!” Aoi shot back angrily, tears swelling in her eyes. “Touko **died**. .. She might’ve been a jerk a lot of the time, but she was still our friend!”

Mondo snarled and cracked his knuckles.

“Alright, fess up! Which one of you bastards did her in?! I’m gonna friggin’ cave your skull in!”

“None of _us_ did it! We were together the whole time!” Junko retorted indignantly as she gestured to Makoto and Sayaka. Sakura nodded in acceptance.

“Asahina and I can also confirm we were together, doing our morning exercises.”

Mondo turned on Leon, who backed up with a snarl himself.

“Dude! I was in the entrance hall! Same as you!”

“Oh yeah…” Mondo grunted and clenched his hands into fists.

If they took the other groups at their word, that left seven unaccounted for, and they were all streaming into the laundry room now. Kirigiri, Togami, Fujisaki, Hagakure, Yamada, Ishimaru, and Celes. They were all present now and perfectly aware of what had transpired. But as people started to throw suspicion around, Naegi spoke up assertively.

“Guys, it might not even be one of us! I’ll bet Monokuma did this to throw us off and make us turn on one another!”

The idol nodded faintly in agreement.

“Y-Yeah… Naegi’s right. He must’ve got bored because no one was committing murder!”

“Bored? Well, I suppose it **was** getting boring chucking grenades at the wall…” Speak, and he shall appear. The monochrome bear still managed to get a good number of them to jump as he was suddenly standing on the table and rubbing the back of his head. But then he made that angry face of his as he raised his arms threateningly at Naegi. “But you’re totally wrongwrongwrongwrong **wrong**! **I** didn’t kill Touko Fukawa~. This bear doesn’t kill unless one of you guys breaks the rules. And since little Miss Self-Deprecating Bookworm over here was a pretty good egg, that means one of **you guys** killed her! Remember that 'Graduation’ clause, hmm~?”

Togami crossed his arms and scowled at the bear.

“I was just about to ask you that… Seeing as how someone was murdered, does that mean the murderer will get to go free…?”

Monokuma clutched his sides as he belted out a laugh.

“Bahahaha! You’re so naïve~! Friggin’ adorably naïve! Of **course** it was never going to be that simple! That’s barely Despairful!”

“You are referring the sixth rule… correct?” Celes calmly asked for confirmation. Naegi had a moment of epiphany as he recalled that rule. It was true. The rule had that bit tacked on the end… 'as long as they are not discovered.’ But just what did that mean?

The monochromatic bear sighed contentedly.

“Look at the brains on this one~. Yep, yep. Now that one of you dumbasses took a life, it’s time to take the case to trial! Just like you would out in the real world~.”

There were many questions, but Monokuma answered each one in rapid-fire succession. They would have a period of time to investigate before they regrouped to debate 'whodunit’ and how. Monokuma did not confirm or deny if there was an accomplice(s), but he did say that only the person who directly committed the murder would be the one, true “blackened”. If at the end they guessed the culprit, only he or she would be Punished. But if they guessed wrong…. everyone else would be Punished, and the killer would get to escape.

… Oh. And “Punishment” entailed execution. Not further imprisonment - just straight-up gruesome death. Which meant that they could not get this wrong. Thirteen lives were at stake, with a fourteenth “blackened”.

Naegi didn't want to doubt any of these people at all. Even if one of them had stooped to murder, he wouldn’t be able to personally hold it against them…. They were backed into a corner by Monokuma. He would feel upset on Fukawa’s behalf, as she didn’t deserve to be killed, but he didn’t think he would be able to “hate” her murderer… Not unless he or she did it on a whim, not unless he or she was truly “evil”.

Still, the trial was getting closer by the minute, and Naegi wasn’t making any progress by thinking about that now, so he shelved it into the back of his mind for now. With distrustful glances, they’d all split off to conduct their own investigations. Some in groups, and some on their own. Junko had split off from him and Maizono to pair off with Fujisaki, though she promised to share her findings with them later.

When the room dispersed, only five living people remained in it. Him, Sayaka, Kirigiri, Mondo, and Sakura. Mondo and Sakura volunteered for guard duty when Togami pointed out the murderer could tamper with evidence if only one person was left guarding the body and crime scene. And he, Sayaka, and Kirigiri apparently all wanted to investigate the crime scene itself before moving onto other areas.

“Hey, um…. Naegi?”

Makoto turned from examining Fukawa’s shattered glasses - apparently, Aoi stepped on them by accident when she opened up the washing machine and found Fukawa in there, hence why she was hanging out of it when they saw her. Sayaka was flashing him the brightest smile she could muster, and he couldn’t help smiling back.

“Yeah, what is it?”

“I just wanted to say I’ll be the best assistant I can be, okay? I wanna help you ever step of the way!”

Naegi chuckled.

“You already are!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, even with the polishing I managed to do, this first chapter came out pretty rough... I hope to improve on the quality as the story moves along, so bear with me if you can. Updates may be infrequent depending on how much polishing I have to do; I may even throw out some of the original plot points I had in mind when I first wrote this out a couple of years ago. Regardless of how I proceed, I hope to at least manage this much - I hope to do the characters justice. There will definitely be new survivors, but keeping everyone in-character, keeping them believable, that's just critically important to me as a writer. If you feel I'm failing in that in some regard, let me know. I'll definitely work on it. 
> 
> And my own shipping preferences aside, I'll try to keep any romance buildup at a respectable pace. It won't be a central focus, but since dynamics are a part of characterization, it'll be there. 
> 
> If you ever have any questions, you're welcome to pose them at anytime. Might not be able to answer certain ones right away, but I'll answer what I can.


	2. Chapter 1, Part 2: To Survive

_It was dark inside the classroom – the only light came from the unsettling red sky outside the window. Dark enough that it was a miracle he’d found the girl after she’d bolted off like that. He’d nearly overlooked her and went on to check the other classrooms._

_“… Wh-Why do **you** care?” Fukawa bitingly hissed to the luckster consoling her. “I-I’m p-probably better off d-dead, anyway… E-Even **he** put it… i-in s-so few poignant words…”_

_Makoto frowned and placed a hand on the writer’s shoulder comfortingly._

_“Fukawa-san… Togami-kun was out of line, saying that. You deserve to be here, just like everybody else!”_

_Fukawa stared down at her twitching hands miserably._

_“B-B-But he’s right… I-If I can’t control her, and she gets bored, I-I’m just a flight risk… Th-There’s no point, b-boxing yourselves up with a wh-whimsical psychopath…!”_

_“There **is** a point…!” Makoto’s earnest passion caught the writer off-guard, and she stared at him wordlessly. The luckster took a deep breath to compose his thoughts. “… We… We spent two years as classmates, Fukawa-san. And I do mean **you**. All of you. Maybe it was… a little crazy at first… Definitely surreal…_

_Fukawa’s brows furrowed as Makoto scratched his cheek sheepishly with his free hand. But then he shook his head again and stared into her eyes with a great determination. A determination that no one in their class expected the plain boy to have… But it was a pretty welcoming surprise, considering all that happened recently._

_“… I believe in you, Fukawa-san. We all do. Haven’t you noticed in the two years you’ve been with us? There’s been no incidents hitting the news.”_

_Fukawa scowled bitterly._

_“Th-That just means no m-murders… She c-could still b-be stabbing people… O-Or…” She trailed off uncertainly, shuddering at the possibilities._

_“Fukawa-san, has Kirigiri-sensei called you into his office for ‘anything’ related to her?” Makoto asked pointedly, shaking the writer from her morbid thoughts. “Or has Kirigiri-san grilled you over any evidence or testimony she dug up? You **know** nothing would get by her.”_

_“…” Fukawa had no rebuttal for that. How could someone pull one over on the Ultimate Detective? Let alone get away with it for two years?_

_Answer: You couldn’t._

_Makoto smiled wryly as the writer resumed fidgeting, but much of the tension had clearly drained from her shoulders._

_“I’m glad Fukawa-san is here. We’ll have someone to write about all the adventures we’ll have in here, once this all blows over! And maybe Fukawa-san will be inspiring some of those adventures herself!” Makoto grinned and chuckled good-naturedly. Fukawa grumbled a bit at the chummy atmosphere… but she didn’t give him the cold shoulder, like she usually did._

_“H-H-How can you say being locked up in here with me c-carries **no** risk…? That seems a bit too optimistic, even for y-you.” The writer glowered at the luckster suspiciously. Makoto’s grin became lopsided, but it didn’t drop._

_“Because even Togami-kun admitted he shouldn’t have said those things to you. Because even Togami-kun knows the kind of person you, and her, are.”_

~*~

Makoto and Sayaka watched uneasily as Kirigiri pulled Fukawa’s body out of the washing machine. They’d cleared away the shards from the broken glasses after discovering that a piece of tape had been attached to the part that went over the bridge of someone’s nose. In other words, before Asahina had stepped on them, apparently the glasses had snapped cleanly in half at some point, and someone had haphazardly tried to tape them back together. However, Fukawa’s glasses had appeared fine at breakfast, so they had broken between breakfast and the time her body had been discovered. It didn’t reveal anything particularly useful yet, but it was a tidbit of information to keep in mind.

Monokuma had dispensed something called a Monokuma File for everybody; in essence, it functioned as an autopsy report, since none of them were associated with the police, who usually investigated these matters. However, as useful as an autopsy report sounded, this file was anything but. They already knew Fukawa had died sometime after the breakfast meeting, and approximating the time did nothing because Fukawa never liked to hang out with them. It was going to be difficult to find out if anyone had seen anyone with her, for any length of time.

At the very least, the file told them her cause of death was suffocation. They hadn’t been able to tell that just by finding her body. There were no other signs of injuries, internal or external. Other than that, the file was pretty much useless to them.

“Hmm…” Kirigiri murmured as she shifted Fukawa on her back and held up her right hand, examining it. Kirigiri’s gloved hand experimentally rubbed some fluid between her fingertips. “Blood…”

Sakura spoke the thought that flitted through their minds.

“The Monokuma File says there are no other injuries… Which would suggest that she fought back against her attacker.”

Mondo rubbed the back of his head.

“Damn… You’re sayin’ Fukawa’s nails are that sharp?” He scowled as Kirigiri shook her head.

“No. If she did that, there would be bits of flesh and specks of blood under her fingernails. However, the blood is only on her fingers. I believe she might’ve had some form of weapon when she was attacked. A weapon small enough that her hand would easily graze against the killer’s wound as she slashed at him…”

The biker punched his open palm in anticipation He seemed excited about something, though the others could only hazard a guess as to what.

“Well, this’ll be easy, then! The bastard who killed her will have some kinda cut or whatever, so let’s just check everybody out, fully body search style!”

“I… don’t think Monokuma would allow that…” Maizono tapped her chin as she looked up at the ceiling. Naegi weakly chuckled beside her.

“Yeah, he’d say something like that would make the game boring, and then he’d come up with some dumb rule about body searches…”

“Not to mention that would not account for the possibility of two or more people who have some type of cut on their body that they received today.” The lavender-haired girl added calmly as she continued to examine the body. "We would narrow down our suspects, but we would not have any other evidence to prove which one it was. It’s best to collect as much information as possible, and go to the trial prepared.“

Mondo visibly deflated and looked away with a click of his tongue. Well, it was still a good lead anyway, even if it wasn’t case-breaking just yet. While Kirigiri handled the body, he turned his attention to a bedsheet that was lying on the floor in a heap. There were a few flecks of blood on it by the look of it,

"Do you think this is just a red herring?” The luckster wondered aloud. “Seems too big to suffocate someone quickly… And I mean, you’d have to do that if you killed Fukawa here, right? ‘Cause our rooms are soundproof, but not the laundry room.”

Maizono tilted her head in contemplation at his musings.

“Yeah… that’s true.”

Sakura hummed thoughtfully as she kept her arms crossed.

“This is assuming that the laundry room was the crime scene. We found the body here, but there is no guarantee that she was killed in this room.”

Mondo snorted in disbelief.

“You really think the killer walked from their room to here, just carrying the body? Even I know that’s a dumbass move with so many people walkin’ around and shit.”

Kirigiri spoke up again without missing a beat.

“And what if this killer was reasonably sure that no one would inadvertently spot them? What if the killer didn’t brazenly carry the body, but wrapped it in something?”

“Like the bedsheet…” Makoto whispered as he looked at the item in a new light.

“You serious?! Even if ya wrap it, someone’s still gonna know you’re luggin’ around a **body**.” Mondo contested.

Kirigiri remained an emotionless mask.

“If you carry it in such a way, the body will pass off as 'laundry’ to any casual onlookers. Naturally, this would mean the killer would have to be careful about who saw them, and how they acted, but the possibility still exists that the body was moved. We have no way to know yet.”

Makoto rubbed his chin and looked down in contemplation.

“Thing is, though, even if the killer moved the body, it doesn’t explain why Fukawa would willingly enter someone else’s room. And I mean, if the killer forced her to go in, someone could’ve seen it. Or am I off-base about that…?”

For once, Kirigiri smiled pleasantly.

“No, that seems like a reasonable question to consider. Another possibility is that the killer gained passage into Fukawa’s room, and killed her there - so at the very least, you should inspect her room. You should also ask around and see if anyone was present in the dorms or the hall at the time of the murder. If not, we’ll know the killer at least had the opportunity to move about undetected. It would be a risky gamble, as someone could come out of their room at any time, but the possibility remains. It is said that killers can be quite illogical.”

Sayaka briefly exchanged a look with Makoto.

“We should also ask if anyone knows what Fukawa was going to do… Whether she was going back to her room, the classrooms, wherever.”

Naegi nodded in acceptance as he half-turned toward the door.

“Okay… Well, I guess we’ll leave the laundry room to you guys. If anything happens or ya find anything, let us know!”

Mondo scowled slightly, but Naegi knew he was just frustrated at the moment.

“Yeah… You guys just do your best out there, I guess. We’ve got it covered here.”

With a wave, the singer and the Luckster exited the room.

~*~

The first people they came across were Leon and Ishimaru, who were in a corner of the massive hall that separated the cafeteria and laundry room. By the look of it, they were arguing, and a vein was popping on Leon’s head in righteous anger.

“I’m tellin’ ya, **it wasn’t me**! Mondo and I were in the entrance hall the whole damn time! If either of us slipped out, the other would’ve known!” The All-Star clenched his fists and held them up furiously.

Kiyotaka, for his part, seemed largely unintimidated by the baseball player’s display. He was cupping his chin and levelling the redhead with a critical glare.

“Forgive me if I do not just take your word for it! You seemed quite panicked when you saw your video, and you clearly said you had to get out!”

“ **Everyone** friggin’ overreacted to their videos, dude! Even Naegi was spooked, and he’s all about that 'gotta stick together’ crap…” Leon rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as he saw Makoto and Sayaka out of the corner of his eye. “Oh, hey, guys!”

Other than Maizono narrowing her eyes in outrage, neither student commented on Leon’s attitude.

“What’s goin’ on, guys?” Makoto felt he had a pretty good idea, but he still asked out of impulse, more than anything else.

“Ah, Mister Makoto Naegi and Miss Sayaka Maizono!” Kiyotaka greeted them both pleasantly, as if he hadn’t just been giving Leon the third degree. “Leon and I were just speaking about alibis!”

“'Speak’ nothin’… I sure didn’t hear **you** talkin’ about **your** alibi…” Leon groused, running a hand through his hair in irritation.

Naturally, Kiyotaka did not seem to hear him. Sayaka seemed to come to his rescue, though, as she hummed noncommittally.

“Leon and Mondo confirm each other’s alibis. If they say they were at the entrance hall the whole time, then they probably were.”

Ishimaru stood rigid as the singer came to the baseball star’s aid. He humbly nodded his head in acceptance.

“I… see. I suppose the same applies to you and Makoto? That you were together, I mean.”

Sayaka nodded with a smile,

“Us and Junko,” Makoto confirmed with a meek laugh. Before Ishimaru could gush too much about the camaraderie, Leon butted in again.

“Look, just what were **you** doing after we left breakfast, huh? Were _you_ with anyone?”

The Ultimate Prefect wilted somewhat as his alibi was put under scrutiny.

“I was… patrolling the halls…” Ishimaru stated with a tightening scowl.

“Alone?" The baseball all-star pressed.

"It is a duty I take most seriously!” Ishimaru defended himself. “… But yes, I was alone in my patrol.”

“Did you see anything that might help?” Makoto asked hopefully.

“Like what Fukawa might have been doing,” Sayaka helpfully supplied, in case Ishimaru needed to jog his memory.

Ishimaru gripped his chin tightly and frowned, eyes narrowing.

“Well… she and Yamada got into a…. disagreement that I had to break up.”

Leon rolled his eyes as the prefect revealed this new information.

“Well, there ya go! Fatty probably had some motive to kill her, and he just went back to meet with Fukawa in private after you broke them up!”

Ishimaru did not seem convinced. And when he explained his reasoning for doubting the theory, Makoto and Maizono had their doubts, too.

“It was a very minor argument, however. Fukawa insulted Yamada’s manga, and he naturally defended them. Plus, when I split them up, Yamada went to the school store, and I know he stayed there because of my efficient patrol route.”

“Che. If it was really 'efficient’, Fukawa wouldn’t be dead, would she?” Leon groused.

“I **know** I failed Fukawa….!” Ishimaru lamented. “But she had said she was heading back to her room, and I had little reason to doubt her. I was quite shocked to find her dead in the laundry room!”

Makoto rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he summarized the account Ishimaru gave them.

“So, after breaking up the small fight and hearing Fukawa say she’d be in her room, you followed Yamada to the school side of the building.” Makoto frowned. “Did you see her open the door to her room and actually go in, though? Did you see anyone else around?”

Ishimaru sagged regretfully.

“No. Unfortunately, I was concerned with Yamada, and making sure he did not go right back to picking a fight with Fukawa. I did not even turn to give Fukawa a second glance, and there was no one else around, to my memory.”

Leon rolled his eyes in frank disbelief.

“Yeah, sure… real believable.” The ginger’s tone was oozing with sarcasm. He tapped an index finger to his head and stuck out his tongue. “I think **you** did it, with the way you were giving _me_ the third degree when your own alibi’s got holes like Swiss cheese!”

Ishimaru grunted out in frustration as he raised a fist in outrage.

“I did not kill Fukawa! If you cannot believe I followed Yamada, then just ask Yasuhiro! He had been leaving the gymnasium when my patrol route went by there!”

Sayaka smiled nervously and tried to ease the tension.

“Umm… Kuwata, why don’t you look for Yasuhiro and confirm that? Naegi-kun and I have a number of things to look into ourselves, and we can’t do everything before the trial starts…”

Leon rubbed the back of his head and grinned roguishly.

“Leave it to me, Maizono-chan!”

Makoto turned to Ishimaru and smiled.

“And Ishimaru, if you see Togami, Celes, or Fujisaki, try to ask what they were doing. Sakura and Asahina were the first ones to find the body, and they were able to find me, Maizono, Enoshima, Oowada, and Kuwata, but the rest of you guys took a little time getting to the crime scene. I mean, I’m assuming you, Yamada, and Yasuhiro are telling the truth about seeing each other and all, but…” Makoto scratched his cheek sheepishly.

Ishimaru chuckled and spread out his arms good-naturedly.

“Of course, Naegi-kun! Consider it done!”

Leon crossed his arms and looked at Naegi skeptically.

“Hey… what about Kirigiri? Anyone looking into her?”

“She, Oogami, and Oowada are searching the crime scene. If she tries to destroy evidence, they’ll stop her. And I’m sure they’ll ask about her own alibi.” Maizono helpfully supplied. Leon shot Naegi an envious glance for half a second before he and Ishimaru departed. It was obvious to the baseball star, at least, that Maizono had been a little too quick in sticking up for the luckster there.

Lucky bastard.

Seemingly oblivious to the ginger’s jealousy, the idol turned back to Naegi, smiling pleasantly.

“So, where do you want to go now?”

~*~

“Oh… wow…” Makoto marveled as they entered the Ultimate Writer’s dorm room. There was a lot more clutter in the room than there was in Naegi’s – stacks and stacks of books everywhere, papers and writing utensils littered about on the floor, tables, desks, and walls. There were also a couple potted flowers sitting as decorations on the table and other flat surfaces.

“It’s chaos, but it’s organized chaos!” Junko said off-handedly, inspecting her nails as both the luckster and idol gained their bearings. The supermodel and programmer had been in there a while, so nothing much surprised them anymore.

Fujisaki nodded in agreement.

“Plenty of room to walk around, and nothing tipped over… There is a lot of clutter on the desk, though…” As the programmer noted that, Sayaka idly walked over and examined the clutter in a little more detail. Makoto stayed rooted toward the entrance of the room, a little uncertain if it was appropriate for a guy to be rifling through a girl’s belongings… Even if the girl in question was dead…

“I don’t see any blood in here, either…” Sayaka murmured, picking up a random notebook and thumbing through the pages. After a few seconds, she placed the book back down, not spying anything noteworthy about it.

“Blood?” Junko cocked her head curiously. “The Monokuma File said Fukawa suffocated, didn’t it?”

Makoto scratched his cheek sheepishly.

“Well… yeah… But Kirigiri-san noticed Fukawa might’ve injured her attacker. And, well, since the attacker’s blood was also on some bedsheets in the laundry room, we figured the real crime scene could possibly have some blood, too…”

Junko crossed her arms, uncharacteristically being pretty serious for once.

“Really? I dunno about that… Fukawa wasn’t exactly workin’ out, y’know? I don’t think she’d have it in her to mortally wound somebody… And that’s the kinda bleeding you’d need to leave super-obvious, in-your-face traces.” Suddenly, an unreadable expression crossed Enoshima’s face and she gave off a Cheshire grin and flashed a cheesy peace sign with her fingers, like she realized she was being a little ‘too’ serious. Like it was out-of-character for her. “Pluuus… Don’tcha think the killer would’ve noticed a bloodstain and cleaned it up~? That seems like basic Crime 101 stuff! Not that I’d know~!”

Makoto, Sayaka, and Chihiro sweatdropped at the diva’s not-so-subtle flustered state. It’s not like they assumed she was an airheaded bimbo just ‘cause she was a model… And it’s not like they needed to keep up public appearances when all of their lives were at stake. They’d need every ounce of brainpower to make it through this mess…

“I don’t think this was the crime scene…” Fujisaki muttered after a few moments of rummaging through Fukawa’s room. “If the killer did clean up after, they organized stuff like a writer would, at least I think…”

“I’m just bummed there’s not, like, a ballsy note left by the killer, callin’ Fukawa out!” Junko muttered with a bit of a pout. “Wouldn’t that have been all dramatic and mysterious?!”

Makoto ran a hand through his hair uncertainly.

“Well, we don’t even know if Fukawa’s murder was premeditated… I mean, we’ve only just begun, but it seems more like a spur of the moment thing…”

Sayaka closed another notebook after thumbing through it, and then turned to Fujisaki with a soft smile.

“Hey, Fujisaki… Not that I think that you did it, but what were you doing after breakfast? I mean, Junko was with us, so we can account for her, but…”

The programmer blinked before nodding in understanding.

“I-I went back to my room for a while… I didn’t know about the murder until that announcement went off!”

Makoto and Sayaka seemed placated by this, but Junko narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

“Can anyone back up that alibi…?”

Despite the suspicion, Fujisaki mustered up a smile.

“Sakura and I saw each other, and I saw Asahina running around, too! Ishimaru got pretty mad about it! He couldn’t keep up with her though when he tried running after her!” Fujisaki giggled, evidently it being a funny memory for her. “Even if Asahina missed it, I know Sakura saw me go into my room!”

That seemed at least in line with what they heard so far… And it’s not like they had any reason to doubt Fujisaki at this point. So for now they’d take Fujisaki’s word for it… Even Junko didn’t have anything to say about it.

“Well… I think if you guys have this room covered, Naegi-kun and I can move onto other areas!” Sayaka clasped her hands together and beamed pleasantly. Junko snorted in response.

“Just make sure to keep Naegster’s pants on, even if you want to investigate ‘those’ other areas~!” Junko gave off another Cheshire grin, flashing another peace sign. “Or if ya think the temptation’s too strong, **I** could always pair off with Naegi~…”

Makoto and Chihiro were beet red from Junko’s blunt-as-an-anvil teasing, and stared down at the floor, suddenly finding it fascinating… As a result, they missed Sayaka’s expression going totally blank and her body standing up ramrod straight, rigidly facing the instigator before her eyes narrowed dangerously.

… Did it just get colder in here?

~*~

“Now, Miss Celestia Ludenberg, I think the lady doth protest too much…”

“… Now this is curious… I do not recall asking to hear your opinion, slave… I do believe I said to **get in there and investigate** …”

A pitiful whine came in response.

“But Miss Celestia Ludenberrrg…! Wouldn’t you better supervise me if you stepped in the room as w-”

“ **Get in that damn room, Porky!!!** ”

The next thing they heard was Yamada’s frightened squeals before he frantically opened a door and scurried through it, slamming it shut behind him. Makoto and Sayaka both sweatdropped, feeling sorry for the otaku… But knowing they probably didn’t want to get caught up in that exchange, they had both opted to pause at the corner of the hall, out of sight of both Celes and Yamada.

“Hmhm… I do so love coercion~…” The gambler giggled a little too pleasantly.

Sayaka and Makoto exchanged a glance warily.

**Definitely** didn’t want to get caught up in that…

Still, Makoto grinned wryly and took the initiative, rounding the corner and greeting the gambler like he hadn’t just heard all that… Sayaka was a little more slow about it, but she joined them a few moments later, opting to stand protectively close to the luckster…

She definitely wasn’t going to allow Celes to push a precious boy like Naegi around. Not on her watch.

“… So, uh, what were you doing after breakfast, Celes?” Makoto ended up asking, after greetings were out of the way.

Celes had been among the first to leave breakfast that morning, after all.

“I returned to my room to rest.” Celes stated easily enough, apparently having nothing to hide. “Breakfast had been quite… tense.”

Well, there wasn’t denying that, either.

“Can anyone corroborate that alibi?” Sayaka spoke up challengingly. Makoto blinked and stared at the idol curiously. What got her so revved up?

Celes merely beamed pleasantly.

“… No. But then again, I would feel quite uneasy if they could verify that… After all, I never left my room until the body discovery announcement, and have given no one permission to enter my sanctuary. Even laying a finger on my door would earn them quite the punishment…”

Makoto frowned and his brow furrowed.

“But… if no one can corroborate you, that’s just going to make you more suspicious… I mean, I wanna believe you, Celes. It’s just… If you stayed in your room all that time, kept an eye on the halls, then you could have… well…” He trailed off, clearly discouraged.

Celes leaned forward assertively.

“Naegi-kun… Your concern is admirable, but I do not need the word of anyone but my own… I did not have a motive to kill Fukawa. Therefore, I had no reason to leave my room.”

Sayaka bristled at Celes’s tone.

“We all had videos…! You can’t say you **didn’t** have a motive!”

Celes placed her hands on her hips exasperatedly.

“And yet, as far as I can tell, Yamada and Togami had further reasons to kill Fukawa… They detested her existence. If a killer chose Fukawa, specifically, it would be one of them. I have not even interacted with Fukawa beyond the meetings where we have all met up… So you see, you must look beyond those videos at the bigger picture.”

“With an attitude like that, maybe Fukawa targeted **you** …” Sayaka shot back. “We don’t know if this murder was premeditated yet!”

“Again… the notion is preposterous. She would have had to approach me in my room, which I would not have **allowed** …” Celes darkly glowered at the idol.

Makoto held up his hands peacefully, attempting to stop things before they became more heated.

“G-Guys… We don’t know much of anything yet! Celes doesn’t have an alibi, but we don’t even have evidence to doubt her, or anyone!”

Sayaka reluctantly restrained herself from further comment, though continued to glare at the gambler, and Celes left in the opposite direction, with a click of her tongue. Makoto sagged at the responses he got.

This was not going well.

~*~

Their investigation and questioning of the others, unfortunately, didn’t shed much more light. Yamada had been forced into investigating the incinerator, which they would all be in charge of as janitor in a weekly rotation basis. Admittedly, if Yamada was the janitor this time, and he had a grudge against Fukawa because of what she said about his manga, he **could** have disposed of evidence… The main problem was, Ishimaru had broken up the scuffle between the two writers, and he’d personally escorted Yamada over to the school zone, where Yamada had waddled off to the school store to wallow in his bitter, pent-up feelings.

No one but Ishimaru could corroborate that alibi, but no one had seen him return to the dorms, either.

Togami and Hagakure wouldn’t even talk to Makoto and Sayaka; the former was simply too cold and dismissive, returning to his room after turning up nothing in his own investigation, and the latter was scared out of his mind, **still** coming to grips with the fact that their lives were in danger while they lived here.

… They would have to pry the truth out of both Togami and Hagakure in the Class Trial. Neither Makoto nor Sayaka had any luck in getting them to talk about what they were doing after breakfast.

There were too many questions left, and the trial was only getting closer.

“Honestly? Today seemed like a laundry day for a lot of people.” Aoi muttered as she crossed her arms and tilted her head thoughtfully. Out of new leads to follow, Naegi and Sayaka had gone to the cafeteria to see if anyone was there. That’s where they found the swimmer, looking all confused about everything. “Togami, Yamada, Oowada… me and Sakura… Yasuhiro… I even saw Fukawa with a load of laundry at some point!”

Naegi and Maizono both immediately latched onto this new information.

“Really? So she didn’t stay in her room?” The Luckster queried. “Or was this before breakfast or something?”

Aoi shook her head.

“No, no. It was after. After me and Sakura were through with our laps and taking a break, I saw her coming out of her room carrying some of her dresses. She was still moody, and stayed as far from us as she could, but she went toward the laundry room, I’m sure of it.”

The singer and luckster shared a look.

“Then…” The dark-haired beauty said slowly. “Maybe she _was_ killed in the laundry room?”

“She was carrying some of her **dresses** , though…” Naegi mused. “Then whose bedsheets got blood on them? The culprit’s?”

“Togami and Oowada were doing their bedsheets.” Asahina supplied helpfully. “I mean - Sakura was, too, but I was with her the whole time!”

“And Oowada was with Kuwata…” Naegi muttered. “That leaves Togami…”

“But Togami doesn’t seem the type to leave evidence lying around haphazardly like that.” Sayaka reasoned. “Even if it got blood on it, he would have folded it up and carried it like he hadn’t done anything. We wouldn’t have had reason to search his room.”

“He **did** treat Fukawa like dirt, though…” Aoi looked sour. “I mean, he isn’t friendly with anyone, but he was especially nasty to her!”

Makoto shook his head, frowning.

“It just doesn’t add up. Even if he wanted out, he wouldn’t aim for the person he 'obviously’ despised. Not to mention how sloppy he would’ve been with the crime scene, if those were his bedsheets. It just seems like…”

Before Naegi could finish his train of thought, the school bell system rang out as Monokuma appeared on the monitor nearby.

“Ahem! I’m getting tired of waiting here… Let’s get things started, shall we? It’s the event you’ve all been waiting for… **The Class Trial!!** Without further ado, I’ll now announce the rendezvous point! Please enter the red doors on the first floor of the school zone. Upupu, see you soooon!" With that farewell, the screen with Monokuma flickered off, and the three teens shared glances with one another.

"W-Well… I guess our time’s up…” The idol smiled nervously.

Naegi rubbed his chin before turning to Aoi seriously.

“Hold on. I know you might not have seen everybody enter the laundry room itself, but can you give the list of people who you 'know’ had laundry, one more time?”

The swimmer nodded shakily. 

“Y-Yeah… Togami, Oowada, Yamada, me, Sakura, Hagakure, and Fukawa. Those are the ones I **know** , anyway…” Aoi’s arms were crossed again, and she looked frustrated. “Do you think Celes could’ve had stuff, too?”

Naegi shook his head.

“There’s no point speculating. We should… just get going, I guess.” As he decided this, Aoi shrugged and left ahead of them, but Sayaka paused to look at Naegi’s troubled expression.

“Is something wrong?”

Seeing the idol’s concern, the luckster rubbed the back of his head and chuckled weakly.

“No… Well… I hope not. Just a bad feeling, I guess. I don’t wanna doubt anyone, but our lives are on the line here…” The brunet’s mouth was set in a grim line, and his hands were clenched at his sides.

Without hesitation, Sayaka took his hands in her own.

“Neither of us, nor Junko, did it, Naegi-kun. And I’m sure we can put our faith in the others. If you have doubts, we’ll clear them up in the trial, for sure!” The singer’s smile was enough to snap Naegi out of his stupor. He gratefully returned her smile with a grin of his own.

“Y-Yeah… You’re right. Let’s solve this case, and get everyone out of this place alive!”

They had to. For Fukawa’s sake as much as their own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel a bit better about how this one came out in the editing process... It's not as "awkward" as the beginning chapter was, which, to be fair, was my fault. Not too much got revealed in the investigation, but in fairness, I saved the brunt of the writing for the trial part of the chapter. Didn't want to finger anyone "too" early... Let you guys come up with your own theories before I get into the meat of the trial. 
> 
> Let me know if I was still too vague, though. I'll make an effort to keep getting better, regardless.


	3. Chapter 1, Part 3: To Survive

_‘Well, we finally get to find out what’s behind these doors…’_ Naegi thought to himself as he, Sayaka, and Asahina made their way through two ornate red doors in the school zone of the academy. It was a small room with an elevator directly across from the doors, and nothing else.

They weren’t the first ones there. Ishimaru, Togami, Junko, and Chihiro were present, and it didn’t take long for the rest to trickle in. Once Sakura brought up the end of the pack, it became obvious that many were wary of each other as they stood there in that compact space. That trust they all possessed in the beginning had been shattered like glass. One of them had succumbed to Monokuma’s motive. One of them had become a murderer.

A lot of suspicious glances were directed at Celes and Togami, and Kirigiri got her share as well. No one said anything outright because, at least how Naegi understood it, there hadn’t been a clear “most likely suspect.” He knew Asahina wanted to say something to Togami just by looking at the glare she was sending him, but even she kept silent. Leon appeared irritated, indicating Ishimaru’s alibi probably checked out. And some, like Yamada, Fujisaki, and Hagakure, looked as though they were weighed down by the oppressive atmosphere.

Unsurprisingly, Monokuma was the one to break up the uneasy silence, appearing on the screen next to the elevator.

“Upupu, you all here? In that case… Please board the elevator at the front of the room. That will take you to the courtroom. The courtroom will determine your **fate**. Upupu… I’ll be one step ahead of you, waiting for your arrival!” The screen went dark.

“A courtroom? They’ve even gone so far as to prepare a goddamn courtroom?” Mondo muttered under his breath. Next to him, Hagakure sighed morosely.

“Come on, dude… They’re seriously holding a Class Trial?” He held a palm to his head and smiled shakily. “If the killer’s gonna come clean, they better do it now!”

Naturally, no one came forward. Fujisaki bowed her head shamefully.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t any help during the investigation… Do you think Fukawa would want her killer to be exposed like this?”

Junko scoffed next to her, examining her nails.

“Kinda, yeah… I mean, she was always petty like that.” The blonde looked at Fujisaki strangely. “And what’re ya talkin’ about? You were loads of help!”

Celes folded her hands in front of her face as she addressed Kirigiri.

“How did it go? I trust the crime scene was illuminating.”

Kirigiri ran a hand through her lilac locks, face betraying no emotion.

“… Let’s go.”

“It’s time.” Togami concurred.

“I did what I could, I’ll leave the rest to you guys!” Leon rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

With all of that said, the teens began boarding the elevator. Sayaka took one of Naegi’s hands in hers at the last moment and gave it a reassuring squeeze. The Luckster smiled gratefully, and they got on the elevator after Celes before Mondo got on last. They then began their descent…

~*~

The ‘courtroom’ was comprised of sixteen ‘witness stands’ arranged in a circle – and the room itself had a gaudy interior that, quite frankly, made Makoto feel physically ill. It’s not like he was expecting Monokuma to respect Fukawa’s death, but this was downright treating her sacrifice like it was a circus. When prompted, the fourteen of them took their assigned places; Yamada and Sayaka were to the right and left of him respectively. On the other side of Yamada was a crossed out headshot portrait of Fukawa, which Naegi deduced was her place to stand, had she lived. Were they all going to be subjected to the same humiliation, if they died?

“Let’s start off with a simple explanation! Your votes will determine the trial’s outcome. Finger the **true villain** , and only the **villain** gets punished! But make the wrong accusation… and everyone else gets punished, leaving your deceiver freeee and cleeear!” Monokuma declared in a singsong voice.

“Is one of us… really the culprit?” Naegi grimaced. He still didn’t like to consider that possibility.

“You betcha!” Monokuma tauntingly answered back.

Crossing his arms proudly and with quite the serious face, Ishimaru addressed the whole group.

“All right, everyone, close your eyes! Then, raise your hand if you’re the culprit!”

Mondo rolled his eyes.

“You a dumbass? Who’d raise their hand?”

“Can this wait?” Kirigiri broke through the banter. “There’s something I’d like to ask before we begin… What, exactly, is the purpose of **that**?”

As one, the group looked to the crossed out portrait of Fukawa. Monokuma giggled.

“Isn’t it sad to be left out just ‘cause you’re dead? Friendship overcomes life and death!” The bear’s words were of no comfort.

“Coming… over… friendship?!” Yamada exclaimed.

Hands on her hips, Celes spoke next.

“In that case, what about that empty seat? There are fifteen of us, so why are there sixteen seats?” A reasonable question, and one that the bear deflected rather unconvincingly.

“No reason in particular. It just means the courtroom can accommodate up to sixteen people. Welp, that should do it for the intro… Let’s get this party started! First, how ‘bout a summary of what went down! Go on, get crackin’!”

Forced to set aside that matter for now, the students reluctantly collected their respective thoughts together. Apparently, this ‘trial’ would consist of a series of nonstop debates where anyone and everyone could speak up. It would be quite easy for the culprit to steer them down the wrong path at any given moment, so Makoto resolved to stay attentive. If he didn’t, they could all be killed.

“Let it be known, Touko Fukawa was murdered!” The Ultimate Prefect started things off.

“Dude, we know that much already…” Hagakure groaned.

Togami held up a pointer finger to his temple arrogantly.

“The body was found in the laundry room. This begs the question: Was she killed there, or was she brought there later?”

“Well, if she _was_ killed elsewhere, it wasn’t in her room.” Junko asserted with conviction.

“Why do you say that?” Yamada questioned, stroking his chin.

“Because there weren’t any signs of a struggle in her room… Me and Junko checked real thoroughly.” Fujisaki replied, looking down sadly.

“So the killer might’ve cleaned up any evidence, that’s all!” Leon rebutted. Hagakure sighed again.

“You seriously think Fukawa would let anyone in her room, dude?”

“So the killer forced her into their own room! No one saw her go near the laundry room!” Mondo snarled. And that’s where Naegi cut in.

“You’ve got that wrong!” The brunet tried to not come across as too forceful. “Asahina, you saw her, right? She was carrying some laundry, and trying to stay far away from you and Sakura?”

The swimmer blinked in astonishment before nodding quickly.

“O-Oh, yeah! While we were taking a break!”

“True… she did leave her room.” The Ultimate Fighter concurred.

“But did she ever go back to her room?” Leon pressed. “Just seein’ her go to the laundry room doesn’t make it the crime scene!”

Asahina appeared downtrodden at being asked that.

“Oh… We wouldn’t know. We went to the school zone to continue our exercises. We didn’t stay near the dorms.”

The Luckster hadn’t known that, nor had Sayaka; naturally, they were disappointed with this revelation. Sakura hummed thoughtfully.

“It was only after completing our exercises that we went to the laundry room and discovered the body… I hazard it was maybe fifteen minutes after we saw her in the hall? Twenty minutes at most.”

Despite the setback, Naegi maintained his usual bright optimism.

“W-Well… That narrows down her time of death, at least! Most of us hadn’t seen her since breakfast!”

“And yet, fifteen minutes is still a rather large window…” Celes pointed out. “To suffocate a person to death, one must hold their breath for at least three minutes. I would think twelve minutes would be more than enough time to tidy up, and give themselves an alibi. That is, of course, setting aside the matter of the crime scene, which is still up for debate.”

Kirigiri was tilting her head in thought, with her eyes closed.

“… For the time being, let us assume the crime scene was the laundry room.”

“Why?” The Ultimate Affluent Progeny’s tone made it sound like more of a demand than a casual question.

“There are at least three reasons.” The mysterious girl explained smoothly. “The first two sort of run hand-in-hand, but I will explain. The first is that forcing Fukawa to enter their room would have been far too suspicious. Anyone could pass by at any moment, and they immediately would have been suspected. The second is that transporting the body, while possible if you wrapped it in a bedsheet, would have drawn attention to them as well. In addition, if the crime scene was elsewhere, there would have been little reason to place the body directly in the washing machine; they could have just dropped the body in the laundry room, and then left as if nothing had happened.”

“What’s the third reason?” Sayaka asked curiously.

“Fukawa did not have her dorm room key on her.” Kirigiri revealed. She didn’t really need to outline why that was unusual. Even if you were planning to return to your room right away, leaving it unlocked for a few minutes would’ve been just asking for trouble, especially after the motive videos that Monokuma forced on them. Fukawa was not the type to be reckless like that.

Junko nodded her head.

“That **is** weird! ‘Cause the key wasn’t in her room either!”

“And it wasn’t anywhere in the laundry room… Me and Sakura had a good look around.” Mondo corroborated them both.

Ishimaru clenched his jaw as his eyes narrowed.

“Okay… So the killer must have taken Fukawa’s key with them, but why would they do that?! They could have just left the key in her room, if they had to access it for something.”

Kirigiri hummed.

“And what if they were afraid that would have drawn suspicion to the room itself? Say, for example, that the killer left some evidence there that they didn’t want found on their person. They had to know we would investigate that room. But what if we knew something was returned there…?”

“You’re saying… the killer took something **else** from Miss Touko Fukawa?!” Yamada sounded a little too excited than the situation warranted. Leon groaned exasperatedly.

“Not now, sleezeball! Can’t you keep your mind out of the friggin’ gutter for thirty seconds?!”

“Well now, I think that would depend on the gutter’s contents.” The fanfic writer unashamedly admitted. Leon, and several others, was simply at a loss with how perverted the otaku was.

“Um… anyway…” Naegi scratched his cheek. “To answer your question, Kirigiri, I would guess we would **specifically** look for stuff that might’ve been brought there from the laundry room. But what are you thinking about?”

The mysterious girl cupped her chin in her gloved hand.

“I wonder… Fujisaki, Enoshima, did you find any small blades? Anything small with a cutting edge.”

Junko crossed her arms and cocked her head in thought. A flash of revelation crossed Fujisaki’s face first.

“Ah! There was some scissors on her desk!”

The Ultimate Fashionista nodded in agreement.

“Yeah! There were four of these totally small weird scissor things! You think she cuts her own hair?”

Realization dawned on Sayaka’s face, just as it did Naegi’s.

“Scissors… so that’s it…”

Togami gritted his teeth as his hand gripped his elbow in frustration.

“Would _someone_ mind explaining? Fukawa was suffocated, not stabbed!”

“Before she died, Fukawa managed to injure her attacker.” Kirigiri intoned. “How badly she hurt them is unknown, but there were traces of blood left on her hand, her body, and the bedsheet. Since Fukawa suffered no other injuries, only the killer could have left that blood.”

Asahina looked at Junko skeptically.

“When you saw bloody scissors, you didn’t think they were related somehow?”

“There wasn’t any blood on ‘em!” Junko snapped. “The killer probably cleaned ‘em off!”

Celes had her hands on her hips again.

“This is all very interesting, but I have a question of my own. Why was the killer so reckless? Instead of attempting this at nighttime, when we all should have been in our rooms, this murderer waited until after breakfast to try and escape. If they were after Fukawa alone for her frail body, that might make sense, but they **could** have targeted anyone else, if they were foolish enough to break the curfew.”

Mondo rubbed the back of his head, looking down.

“Maybe because at night, their alibi couldn’t checkout? Like… We were all ‘supposed’ to be in our rooms, but that doesn’t mean jackshit when everybody suspects everybody.”

“That, and I am starting to wonder if Fukawa’s murder was premeditated at all…” Kirigiri mused. “The crime scene, the method of killing her, even the cleanup afterward… All of it seems to be done in haste.”

“If the pressure got to ‘em after watching their video, I’m not surprised!” Hagakure laughed hollowly.

“Does anyone have any ideas who the killer could be?” Fujisaki asked, her voice quivering. Of all the things they talked about until this point, not a single name had been dropped as a suspect.

“Well, I’d say since Asahina ‘n Sakura were the last to see her, _and_ the first ones to find the body, I’d say it coulda been one of them, the other bein’ an accomplice.” Leon asserted, crossing his arms and scowling.

The swimmer, understandably, took a step back, aghast.

“What are you saying?! There’s no way I’d kill someone, even if she was a jerk to me!”

“I can vouch that we did not go to the laundry room until we discovered the body.” Sakura folded her arms and glared straight back at Leon.

Before the three could start arguing heatedly, Sayaka played peacekeeper.

“Guys, guys! Before anything else, we should ask Monokuma if it was even possible for there to be an accomplice!”

Naegi nodded in agreement.

“Yeah! ‘Cause we don’t even know if the accomplices would become ‘blackened’, too!”

Unsurprisingly, Monokuma didn’t sound too thrilled to be put on the spot like that.

“Alright, alright! If you all must know, it is always possible for a blackened to bring in an accomplice, but only the killer themselves would get to graduate! So there’s no sane benefit for the accomplices.” The monochrome bear paused thoughtfully. “Besides, there wasn’t any accomplices for **this** dumbass. … Whoopsies.”

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Monokuma meant to let that slip. Though he did want to keep the game ‘interesting’, he probably also wanted to make the killer sweat. That was just how the sadistic bear operated.

“I suppose our first order of business would be to look into the people doing their ‘laundry’ today…” The Ultimate Gambler mused. “If this was spur-of-the-moment, then it is likely sheer coincidence they went to the laundry room the same time as the victim…”

“Wasn’t there a bunch of people doin’ it today?” Leon scowled.

“Other than me, Sakura, and Fukawa,” Asahina remarked, “there was Togami, Yamada, Oowada, and Hagakure. Yamada and Oowada stepped in there with stuff before breakfast, and Togami and Hagakure went there right after breakfast. I wouldn’t know if any of you guys returned there after me and Sakura went to the school zone…”

“Kuwata and I were in the entrance hall killing time.” The biker grunted.

“Aye, and Mister Kiyotaka Ishimaru escorted me to the school zone after Miss Touko Fukawa said some… rather unsavory things…” Yamada’s eyes darted back and forth unhappily.

“That still leaves Togami and Hagakure~…” Junko sang tauntingly as she leered at the two of them.

Obviously, it was the clairvoyant who spoke up in a panic first.

“H-H-Hey! My laundry wasn’t set to be done ‘til another hour! I killed some time goin’ to the gym!”

Ishimaru nodded firmly.

“As my patrol route took me to the gym, I can confirm that Hagakure was indeed leaving there!”

It did not go un-noted that Ishimaru said ‘leaving’ the gym, but no one else pointed that out, in favor of turning their attention to Togami.

“After placing my bedsheets in the washer, I returned to my room.” The heir coldly answered the suspicious glares “I did not even see that repulsive bookworm, and I haven’t had the chance to retrieve my bedsheets yet.”

“Hmmm… Could it be… Mister Byakuya Togami used his own bedsheets as a red herring?!” Yamada accused the wealthy progeny.

Togami coldly turned on the otaku.

“Philistine. When I make my move, there will be **no** sloppiness. There won’t even be an atom-sized piece of evidence that will implicate me!”

“What about other people, dudes?” Hagakure nervously chipped in. “I mean, does Celes-chi or Kirigiri-chi have alibis?!”

A dark aura surrounded Celes as she smiled pleasantly. Too pleasantly.

“I was in my room the whole time after breakfast. I had no business with any of you.”

Hagakure did not give up so easily.

“W-Well, yeah… But maybe-”

“ **I did not have any fucking business with anyone, shithead**!”

… That was the end of **that** line of questioning…

“Umm… How about you, Kirigiri?” Sayaka tentatively asked to get the conversation moving along again, now that Hagakure was scared shitless of the snarling gambler.

“… The entrance to the gym.” The mysterious girl answered simply. She had been aware of Hagakure, Ishimaru, Oogami, and Asahina all passing by her at various points, but right now her mind looked to be elsewhere.

“W-Well… I guess that still leaves Togami and Hagakure…” Naegi nervously scratched his cheek, and again Togami spoke up haughtily.

“I think not. What about Fujisaki?”

The poor girl seemed on the verge of tears at his accusation.

“M-Me…? There’s no way I…”

“Togami, you jackass! Do you really think Fujisaki would be able to suffocate Fukawa?!” Mondo roared. “Obviously, it was a fucking guy that did her in!”

“And before you suggest it, me, Naegster, and Maizono were all in the A/V room.” Junko growled out. Sayaka scowled a little, but did not contradict the fashionista.

The heir harrumphed before proposing another theory.

“Very well… then how about this. Ishimaru’s patrol route brought him back to the dorm area, where he cornered Fukawa and killed her. That is certainly possible, correct?”

“No.” Kirigiri ran a hand through her lilac hair. “Ishimaru tried to stop Oogami and Asahina from being too disruptive in the gym.”

“That is correct!” Ishimaru affirmed, arms crossed. “That ate up much of my time, and I had to double-time it back to the hallways to make up for it, but I did not set foot back in the dorm area of the academy until Fukawa’s body was discovered!”

“In other words, you and Hagakure are still our prime suspects, Togami.” Leon taunted the heir, who looked none too happy.

“I did not lay a finger on that disgusting cretin!”

“It wasn’t me, dudes! True as truth!” The clairvoyant was clutching his head fearfully.

Celes was scowling as her hands were back on her hips.

“This is getting us nowhere… We could try to guess which of them it was by majority vote, but there is still a fifty percent chance of being wrong.” Not even she would make a bet on those odds.

Sayaka frowned and looked toward the Luckster next to her.

“You’ve been quiet, Naegi… Can you think of a way to break this stalemate?”

Naegi raised an index finger to his lips in thought.

“If we could find out what the killer used to suffocate Fukawa, that might tell us something… ‘Cause, I don’t think they used the bedsheet. It’s a little too… big…” Naegi honestly wasn’t sure how the bedsheet fit in, either, to be honest. If he reviewed everything they knew so far about how things played out, the bedsheet shouldn’t have come up at all… Not unless the culprit had taken their own bedsheets out of the wash, and Fukawa had attacked them in a spur of the moment… Which was, okay, at least plausible.

“How about the killer’s wound?” Sayaka proposed. Monokuma butted in on their conversation at that point.

“Ah, I hope you aren’t thinking of having the suspects strip down~… Because if you propose that, then I will immediately call for voting time after your search, regardless of what you find out!” The monochrome bear cackled at all their tense expressions.

The general consensus was… they couldn’t risk it. They could try and call Monokuma’s bluff, but if Togami and Hagakure both had relatively fresh wounds, nothing would change.

“Let’s go over the crime scene one more time, and elaborate on our reasons for suspecting these two.” Kirigiri decided. They wanted to leave as little room for doubt as possible.

As they started going around the room again with everyone talking, Asahina kicked things off.

“I think it’s Togami! He hated Fukawa!”

“If that’s your only basis, you sign all of our death warrants.” The heir scoffed.

“There’s the issue with the bedsheet, too!” Asahina growled. “Hagakure just had some of his clothes!”

“And it doesn’t strike you as possible that the killer rifled through a random washing machine to find something to use to pin the crime on someone else…?” Togami condescended.

“It **would** be quite the extraordinary coincidence that the killer would have pinned the crime on you, who has no solid alibi…” Sakura intoned.

“Celes does not have a ‘solid’ alibi either, if we are saying those who stayed in their rooms cannot be trusted.” Togami argued.

Junko hummed noncommittally.

“Y’know, while I can see why you guys think it was Togami, I’m startin’ to think it was Hagakure who flipped. I mean, you wanna talk about ‘desperate killer’, that guy **would** do something crazy like shove Fukawa in the washing machine after he was done…”

“Junko-chiii! I didn’t kill her!” Hagakure whined.

“That’s not a convincing argument, dumbass!” Leon grunted.

“Well, how about this! If I was the killer, I’d have gotten some kinda scar, right? But I didn’t have any on me when I came to check out the body with you guys!” Hagakure cupped his chin and nodded firmly.

“If the killer used their own jacket to suffocate her…” Kirigiri argued. “… Then when Fukawa wounded you, the cut could have been on your upper arm, and all you would have had to do was resume wearing your coat. Lack of a visible wound does not clear you.”

This obviously applied to both teens in question, considering Togami wore a suit.

“Are there any other clues…?” Fujisaki asked sadly, fearing there wouldn’t be any.

“Glasses.” Togami answered crisply.

“Say what now?” Mondo growled at the heir.

“Fukawa’s glasses were broken right outside the washing machine she was stuffed in.” Togami clarified. “I do not think we have established that yet, let alone how they came to be broken…”

Hagakure nodded sagely at the blond’s input.

“Oh yeah… They looked like they were broken clean in half, dudes!”

Naegi sucked in a breath as he heard that claim. He knew the glasses would come up at some point, though he never would have imagined they would actually be ‘case-breaking’ pieces of evidence… But it was too late to feel any regrets, and he needed to point out the contradiction…

“You’ve got that wrong!” The Luckster shouted out. Hagakure blinked in surprise at him.

“H-Huh? What is it, Naegs?”

“The glasses **were** broken, but the way you described them…” Naegi clenched his teeth as he looked down in shame. When he looked back up, he gazed around at everyone. “Can you guys recall what state the glasses were in when we saw them?”

Fujisaki poked her index fingers together.

“Th-They were… shattered… “ She gasped as she realized the same thing that everyone was just now seeing.

“S-So I misremembered the crime scene! Happens all the time!” Hagakure laughed loudly.

“That’s not the only thing.” Kirigiri coolly contradicted the clairvoyant. “Those glasses were broken **twice**. We all saw the state they were in the second time they were broken – after Asahina had accidentally stepped on them – but there was a bit of tape on the bridge piece. This implies they **were** cleanly snapped in half at some point; we just never worked out how or why, because Fukawa’s glasses were fine at breakfast.”

Togami’s index finger was on his temple again.

“I see… Those of you who investigated the crime scene only figured that out by closely examining them… The rest of us shouldn’t have had any idea about the ‘first’ time they were broken.”

Hagakure was clearly sweating now.

“I- Of course anyone with eyes could see they were broken twice, dudes! I couldn’t look at Fukawa’s body for long, so I ended up lookin’ at the sh-shattered glasses closely! Yep!”

… No one was buying that.

Deciding to put an end to everything, Naegi made a closing argument that would attempt go over all the events that happened. First, after they all broke off after the breakfast meeting, Hagakure decided to do some laundry, and then kill some time by hanging out in the gymnasium. While that was going on, Fukawa was having an altercation with Yamada over his doujinshi, which was swiftly broken up by Ishimaru, who guided Yamada to the school zone. A short while later, Fukawa decided to do some laundry of her own, warily passing Sakura and Asahina in the hall. Sakura and Hina would move onto the school zone after this, and Hagakure would likely pass by them as well, as he had since left the gym by that point. And if he passed by them, he could have easily seen Kuwata and Oowada in the entrance hall, and Yamada in the school store. He also could have confirmed Naegi, Maizono, and Enoshima were in the A/V room.

For whatever reason, be it coincidence or boredom, Hagakure headed for the laundry room. That was where he encountered Fukawa. Now, having walked through the school and dorm zones, Hagakure happened to have a general understanding of where most people were and what they were doing. Monokuma’s motive video must have been plaguing his mind, because the clairvoyant inevitably snapped and used his jacket to try and suffocate Fukawa. However, Hagakure had no way of knowing that Fukawa carried some scissors on her; whether they were her personal possessions or something that Monokuma gave to her, it didn’t really matter. She struggled against Hagakure, and managed to wound him… But it wasn’t enough. Hagakure still overpowered her, and he managed to suffocate her.

Wasting no time, Hagakure started rearranging the scene. He looted through Fukawa’s clothes, making sure to take all the scissors and her room key, and then he shoved her body in the washing machine in case anyone else came in after he’d left. In his haste, or perhaps it was Fukawa during their struggle, Fukawa’s glasses were broken in half. After cleaning off the scissors and planting them in Fukawa’s room, he returned to the scene and hastily taped Fukawa’s glasses back together, likely forgetting in his frenzy that he didn’t need to bother since they were broken and Fukawa wouldn’t be needing them anymore. Still, the mistake was made, and he did one other thing to try to obfuscate the events. He took what was either Togami or Yamada’s bedsheets out of the washer, in the hopes of pinning the crime on either of them and making it look possible that the body was transported to the laundry room. In the end, Yamada and Togami both wound up being suspected, but that worked to his advantage as well.

What proved to be his undoing, however, was the fact Asahina would step on the glasses, as well. Whether he was trying to draw an eventual witness to the washing machine Fukawa was in, or if it was a genuine mistake that he left them on the floor, it didn’t really matter. Hagakure still made that ‘slip of the tongue’, and let everyone in on the “first” time the glasses were broken.

“Yasuhiro Hagakure! **You** killed Touko Fukawa!” Makoto accused the clairvoyant with conviction. Yasuhiro was quivering like a leaf, and yet he looked like he was going to blow up at any moment. That moment came shortly after the closing argument was presented in full.

“Naegs! I can’t believe you doubt me that much, dude! There’s no way in hell I killed Fukawa!” Hagakure raised his pointer finger and gnashed his teeth. “It mighta hit me real hard that this isn’t some sick joke set up by the school, but there’s no way I’d stoop to murder! And you don’t have a shred of evidence to say otherwise! All you got is one measly little ‘slipup’ I said!”

For the first time throughout the Class Trial, Kirigiri **grinned** , her eyes closed.

“I’d say he has a lot more than that… But if you’re really so eager to prove your innocence, take off your coat. And I do mean **both** of them.”

Hagakure winced, his eyes darting about.

“Don’t forget, once you do that, voting time happens~.” Monokuma chirped. Hagakure gaped at him, dumbfounded.

“I don’t even get a chance to explain?!”

“Nope!” The bear immediately shot him down.

“What’s the matter? You’re talking as if you’ve already folded…” Celes said as she leaned forward intimidatingly.

Hagakure took a step back, eyes wide and mouth desperately trying to work.

“N-NO! I…!”

“Man the hell up!” Mondo roared. “If you killed her, ‘fess up!”

Hagakure could do nothing as he stood there, rooted in abject terror. This wasn’t the fear of someone being misunderstood – it went beyond that. Hagakure had the face of the damned, and he knew he wasn’t going to get out of this no matter how hard he tried. In the end, Monokuma had to get things moving again.

“Oh well, time’s up~. It appears you’ve reached a conclusion. All right, then! Let’s begin ballot time! Please cast your vote using the switch in front of you~! Ah, and just for the record… Make absolutely sure you vote for someone! You don’t wanna get penalized for something so silly~. Alrighty. Let’s end this with a bang~! What’ll your verdict be? Who’s tonight’s **villain**?! Will you be right, or **oh so wrong**?!?!”

Once all the ballots were entered, a slot machine activated, spinning all the faces of the students until three faces of Hagakure lined up, and Monokuma Coins poured out in droves.

While the students stared horrified at the correct result, Monokuma chuckled and jumped off of his throne.

“Ohoho! You’re absolutely correct~! The **villain** who killed Touko Fukawa… was Yasuhiro Hagakure!”

The Ultimate Clairvoyant backed up nervously as all eyes had turned to him expectantly.

“Wh-Wh-What?! H-Hold on… a sec…”

“Hagakure… You really… murdered… Fukawa…?” Naegi grimaced as he looked down miserably.

Asahina covered her mouth in horror.

“H-How could you…?!”

“You **son of a bitch**!!! The **fuck** did you do thatfor?!” Mondo expressed righteous anger.

Hagakure’s mouth opened and closed, like he were a fish on dry land. His eyes turned into pinpricks as he was forced to remember exactly how events played out.

~*~

_“Ha… haha… I seriously can’t believe how far they’re takin’ this, dude… It’s- It’s such a bad hoax!” He laughed to himself hollowly. His laundry still had a ways to go, but it’s not like he had anyplace better to be, so he took a seat at the table and let his thoughts go wherever they’d take him._

_Hagakure blinked when he heard someone shuffle into the laundry room._

_“Y-You’re s-still on about that…? H-H-How delusional **are** you?!” The writer bit down on her thumb in both aggravation and nervousness._

_Hagakure hung his head shamefully._

_“I-I know I’m a bit mentally challenged, ‘kawa, but callin’ me delusional?! That’s just mean!” Hagakure then snapped his head up and raised his pointer finger angrily. “I know all about scamming the wrong people, dude! That’s why I know Hope’s Peak is probably doin’ the same thing! They think just ‘cause we’re a bunch of kids, they can push us around and cheat our families outta their money! Well, I’ll tell ya, me mom won’t fall for it! I wouldn’t be able to scam her if my life depended on it, they won’t have any better luck!”_

_Momentarily, Fukawa didn’t seem to know what to say to all that. Hagakure assumed he’d struck her speechless with his flawless logic… But Fukawa seemed to find some words pretty quick. Some pretty sharp and pointy ones._

_“W-W- **Wow** … You even tried to scam your own mother? I thought you were j-just an imbecile, but I g-guess you’re a pretty morally-deprived a-asshole, t-too… You **seriously** think th-the best school in the world would stoop to **y-y-your** level? I f-feel s-sorry for whatever recruiter you bribed to g-get in here… Th-They obviously didn’t know the d-disappointment they were taking in!”_

_Hagakure floundered like a fish on dry land._

_“S-Seriously?! You just don’t **get** it! None of you do! **I** don’t know how Hope’s Peak recruited such gullible, backwater hicks like you dudes! That video **can’t** be real! I won’t believe it! I… I…”_

_Fukawa snorted derisively._

_“S-Seriously…? It s-sounds like you b-believe it more than anybody else… What a l-load of crock…” The writer grinned lewdly. “B-But… Then again, a fortuneteller b-believes a lot of crazy c-crap… I-I guess if you s-scammed all the wr-wrong people, y-your mom just took the f-fall for your mistakes… You reap what you sow!”_

_Hagakure’s pupils dilated. When he spoke again, it sounded like all the air was knocked out of him._

_“Wh… What did you say…?!”_

_Fukawa’s brow furrowed. She couldn’t place it, but there was something unsettling about the clairvoyant’s tone. By now, the Ultimate Writer had shuffled over to the washing machines, wanting to check on her laundry – the sooner it was done, the sooner she could get away from this creep._

_“H-Huh…? W-Weren’t you j-just bragging about your mom just now…? I-It just makes a lot of sense… for your mistakes to c-catch up with an idiot like you, and f-for someone t-to use your mom as c-collateral… Wh-What? Did I hit the n-nail on the head or something?”_

_Hagakure’s eyes narrowed suspiciously, and he gnashed his teeth furiously._

_“And **how** did you figure **that** out?!” He demanded heatedly. He raised his pointer finger again in outrage. “W-Were you watchin’ my video instead of yours?! Am I just ‘stupid’ enough to be your ticket outta this dump?!”_

_To say Fukawa was at a complete loss would be a massive understatement._

_“Jeez… you really are an idiot…” The writer muttered. “D-Do you **really** think I’d be wasting my breath on y-you if I was going to kill you…?”_

_Hagakure could feel something inside him snapping. He stood up heatedly, and out of reflex, Fukawa backed up against the nearest washing machine._

_“You think I’m gonna fall for that?! You think I’m just gonna wait around for you to plot my demise?! **I won’t let you** …!”_

_“…!”_

~*~

“I…! I had no choice!” The clairvoyant whispered, coming back to reality. He was too rattled to relay his memories to any of the others; he felt like he didn’t have to. No way he had pegged Fukawa wrong! “I… She was gonna **kill** me! She pulled those scissors out of nowhere! So… So I **had** to kill her! One wrong move, and this coulda happened to **any** of you guys! Fukawa just happened to target me… Just my luck…”

Hagakure sounded righteously angry as well, toward the end. Naegi honestly didn’t know what to think. It was true they didn’t know ‘who’ attacked first… They just assumed it was Hagakure because he’d been prone to panic in the past, but if Fukawa really had tried to kill him first…

“On the contrary.” Celes replied, stunning everyone. “Even if you could make a case that she attacked you first, you had a choice to make, Hagakure. You could have just suffocated her until she blacked out, but you went **all the way**. You **murdered** her. You could not **possibly** argue a case for justified self-defense.”

Hagakure trembled as he clutched his head, moaning. Apparently, he had no rebuttal to give to that.

“No…” Makoto muttered as he looked back up, clenching his fists. “We shouldn’t blame Hagakure. After all, the catalyst behind all of this… was those videos, right? They made Hagakure, and maybe Fukawa, act irrationally! They never would’ve attempted murder if you hadn’t forced those videos on us!”

Hagakure seemed to regain some color from the luckster’s impassioned speech. He gestured toward Naegi emotionally.

“Y-You… You get it, Naegs!” The clairvoyant looked down shamefully. “The truth is… when I saw my video, I was scared. For as long as I’ve been fortunetelling, I’ve been chargin’ people a ton of money to tell their fortunes.”

“In other words, you extorted them for your lousy fortunes.” Junko rolled her eyes.

“I **might** cheat them out of their money a bit… But OOPArts are **expensive** , dudes!” Hagakure pointed at her crossly. Then he sighed somberly. “… But yeah, people weren’t too happy to get fortunes that were at least thirty percent right. Even though that’s way better than any fortune they could get elsewhere!”

Togami clenched a fist.

“Could you get to the point?”

The fortuneteller held up his hands.

“Okay, okay! So, I made a lot of enemies with my business… some of whom may or may not have been with the yakuza. When I saw my video, and that somethin’ might have happened to my mom, I freaked! ‘Cause it looked like the yakuza had gone nuts in my house, and my mom was just… gone. I… I needed to get out of here and find her! She’s the one person I love most in the world, and she puts up with all my quirks… my faults… If the yakuza were taking her as collateral for the money I took from them, I needed to get her back! But…”

Monokuma simply giggled.

“Killing someone over **interpersonal relationships**? Scaaary! He played the part of a bumbling adult who got held back several times, but when you get down to it, Hagakure was mad as a hatter~!And Fukawa wasn’t much better!”

Sayaka just stared at the monochrome bear.

“Wh-What…?”

Monokuma rubbed the back of his head.

“Yeah~… I’m kinda bummed she got killed off so soon, but there was a part of Touko Fukawa that you guys never got to find out~… Maybe you’ll discover it later, but it’s not quite the same as **experiencing** it… y’know? Ahh, never mind me. Just talking to myself here.” Monokuma cleared his throat irritatingly. “So! The tribe has spoken. You guys found the **villain** in splendid fashion. So it’s time for this round’s **villain** , Yasuhiro Hagakure, to receive his punishment!”

“P-Punishment?!” Hagakure yelped. He clutched his head desperately. “Y-You mean… **execution**?!”

“That’s right~! You disrupted the order, so now you must suffer the consequences! There are no excuses! Those are society’s rules~!” Monokuma unmercifully replied.

“ **Please**! At least tell me what happened to my mom!” Hagakure tried to make one last plea. However…

“Nope, nope, nope! I do believe I said you only get that information after graduation! There’s no prize for second place~…”

“PLEASE, STOP…!” Hagakure bellowed.

“I’ve prepared a _very_ special punishment for Yasuhiro Hagakure, the Ultimate Clairvoyant!”

“No, no, no, **no** , **nooo** …!” Hagakure screamed.

“Let’s get the ball rollin’! It’s **punishment time**!”

“ **NOOOOOO**!”

Monokuma plopped back down on his throne, and a big red button appeared before him. Monokuma raised a hammer and smacked the button hard, initiating an 8-bit screen that showed Hagakure getting dragged off by Monokuma, with the words announcing he had been found Guilty and that it was time for his punishment. In the real world, Hagakure was shifty-eyed as he looked around the courtroom, surrounded by all of his classmates. Abruptly, a chain came flying from the elevator, and firmly clamped down around his neck, before dragging him all the way back up. Hagakure struggled to get free, but he was forced all the way to his destination, which turned out to be a makeshift fortuneteller tent, where his classmates watched him through the entrance to the tent, and he was flooded by a surge of Monokuma ‘customers’ that were dressed in yakuza suits. They were piling so much money on the table, Hagakure honestly didn’t know what to do, except try to appease them all by telling each and every one of their fortunes.

However, it soon became clear that only a third of Hagakure’s “customers” were content with his services. The other two thirds were bringing out machine guns and other such assault weapons, and Hagakure knew he was in for it. He tried to bolt, but the clairvoyant didn’t get far before the Monokuma’s opened fire, and his whole body was mowed down in mere seconds, thick streams of blood spurting everywhere. With a meaty ‘thump’, his corpse collapsed to the floor, his head shot clean off, and the rest of him was barely identifiable. Hagakure’s classmates stared in absolute horror and despair at the grim scene as the Monokuma’s stalked off with their money, and set the tent and corpse ablaze as they left.

There were… no words. Just like that, Yasuhiro Hagakure was gone, and his remains were being treated even more disrespectfully. They were swiftly returned to the courtroom, but all that some of them could manage were screams and shrieks. What they’d just borne witness to… it could be only called Despair. There was no other word for it.

“YAHOOOO! That was **EXTREEEME**! I’m **DROOOWNING** in **adrenaline**!” Monokuma was, obviously, the only one remotely happy with the execution… hell, he was **orgasmic**.

Sayaka was wordlessly clutching Naegi’s sweatshirt, and she was burying herself in his shoulder as she cried her heart out. Yamada’s hands were twitching around his mouth in terror.

“Ahh… AHHHHHH….!”

“Wh-What **is** this?!” Junko shrieked.

“I-I can’t take it anymore…” Fujisaki sobbed. “Do we really have to continue this…? I can’t do it!”

“If you’re not a fan of this…” Monokuma said. “… then completely disconnect yourself from the **outside world** and accept your new lives here! That is, if you guys can do it… Upupupupupu…”

“Y-You bastard…!” Mondo snarled. “What’s your objective in all this?!”

“What’s my objective?” Monokuma tilted his head. “Talk about a guy like he’s an evil secret society… Or, in this case, wouldn’t it be, ‘Talk about a **bear** like he’s an evil secret society’?!”

“Ummm… Why must such an upstanding citizen such as myself be subjected to this?” Yamada asked.

“Becaaause, how **else** would you turn something common sense says is impossible into common sense?” Monokuma shot back nonsensically. “That’s like using a scale to measure length. Well, it’s not like you couldn’t do it, but…”

“Whoa, whoa… I don’t think we’re on the same page here…” Leon said with a shaky, nervous grin. Mondo’s hand twitched furiously.

“Damnit…! I dunno who the hell you are, but I’ll have your fuckin’ head on a pike…”

“Upupu~… You’re so **mad** … Do you hate me? If you wanna hate on someone, you’ve got the wrong bear, bro! I mean, this murder only happened ‘cause **you guys** want out, right?! It’s **your** fault ‘cause you can’t let go of your attachment to the outside world!” Monokuma lectured the biker.

“Of **course** we can’t just ‘drop’ those attachments…!” Junko exclaimed. “We were suddenly dropped and trapped in this screwed up place…”

“Hmm…” Monokuma hummed. “’ **Trapped** ’, huh? When you guys uncover all the academy’s mysteries, you’ll most definitely be saying… ‘Wow, I’m so lucky I get to live my whole life here!’”

“Wh-What do you mean… by that…?” Ishimaru asked.

“There’s a lot of meaning buried in your words…” Kirigiri mused. “Like earlier, when you said ‘everyone’s waiting’. Just who is this ‘everyone’ you speak of?”

Monokuma just laughed.

“Well, I’ve said everything I’ve can! It’s not as much fun if I don’t save some for later! Bahaha!”

With that last declaration, Monokuma took his leave, and the thirteen remaining teens stood there rigidly, unmoving for quite some time. Naegi was clutching onto Maizono with just as much desperation, as he feared that if he ever let her go… she would suffer a similar grizzly fate to the one that befell Hagakure. And Maizono, being so distraught, just buried her face in his shoulder even more, leaning into him as much as possible.

Despite everything that had happened, despite everything that was likely to come, Makoto recalled the promise he had made in the classroom, after comforting her when she had watched her video. He also recalled later that night, when she’d been frightened by someone trying to get into her room, and she came to him for reassurance. And he felt all the more determination to keep that promise.

“I’m going to get you out of here…” Makoto whispered softly to the idol, strengthening his hold on her, rubbing her back soothingly. He buried his face in her soft hair, inhaling her scent to calm himself down, too. “It’s… It’s too late to save everyone… But I… I’ll save you, I swear…!”

No one else deserved to die. He was going to protect Maizono with all he had. Naegi would do his best to make sure the rest could get out, as well… He could only hope that they could stand united against Monokuma… against the Mastermind.

Sayaka lifted her head from Makoto’s shoulders to look at him with a tear-stained face. She gave a wobbly, warm-hearted grin.

“Y-You… You already have… Makoto… It’s **my** turn to promise **you** that I’ll get you out, too… I’m not leaving you behind, not ever!” She buried her face in the crook of his neck and continued to cry.

Sayaka had nearly given into Monokuma’s threats on that night… **Would** have given in, if not for the boy she was clinging to like a lifeline… That wasn’t the worst part anymore, though. Because it was already bad enough that she almost killed someone that night… but now… Now she knew that if she had surrendered to those impulses, Makoto would have paid the ultimate price because of her.

Never again. Monokuma could threaten her at gunpoint, and she would never kill anyone. Makoto had saved her, unwittingly or not, so now she had to do the same for him. Her honor and character demanded it.

… And above all, so did her heart. 

**Students Remaining: 13**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was gonna make you wait a few days for this one... I didn't know how long the polishing would take, and I did wanna let you guys muse on the possible culprit... 
> 
> ... But I was pretty surprised that I didn't have to polish this one nearly as much. I DID fine-tune some parts, but I barely had to tweak, like, twenty five pages of this. And there was 31 pages by the time I was done. That said, I'd be happy to take this back to the drawing board if you guys think there's parts that need better portrayal. 
> 
> Besides, in all honesty, I'd rather get Chapter 1 out of the way now, and dedicate my polishing to the future chapters. I'm not so much in a rush, that's not it; I just felt pretty good about how this came out. Feel free to let me know what you guys think!


	4. Chapter 2, Part 1: Boys' Life of Despair

As the live footage cut out on showcasing Hagakure’s Swiss cheese of a corpse, a breezy sigh escaped a blond man’s lips. He leaned his cheek into his fist as he stared listlessly at the screen, waiting for the footage to continue airing the Despair for all to see.

Wordlessly, a silver-haired woman handed him a bottle when he prompted for it with his free hand. The man took a deep swig of it, some of the liquid escaping his lips and running down his face and neck as he chugged it.

“… It was an acceptable tribute.” The woman eventually said, allowing the man to drink in peace.

Shortly after she’d said that, the blond ceased his drinking. He leaned forward in his seat, gripping the bottle silently.

“Tribute, my ass…” The blond spoke, taciturn. He scowled. “Enoshima-san did that on purpose… I couldn’t be in there with her, so she killed the shitty con artist just the way I would have!”

The man barked out a short, bitter laugh before hurling the bottle at the wall, shattering it violently.

“… Though, I guess since it was Enoshima-san, I’ll let this one fly.” The man’s red eyes seemed to glow in the dark as he glared at the screen piercingly. His hands were clasped in front of his face as he leaned forward expectantly. “That said, that’s nowhere near enough. Enoshima-san has to step it up, if we’re gonna feel **real** Despair out here… This first murder was a joke!”

The woman half-bowed her head respectfully.

“I am certain she will, Young Master… Enoshima-san has the power to see into people’s souls, **especially** them, so she will no doubt make them dance like puppets until she cuts their strings…”

The blond smirked cruelly.

“Enoshima-san fights dirty when she gets bored… Those poor bastards should be honored, getting a taste of that **Despair** before they croak!”

They were off to a slow start… But the apocalypse feverishly trudged on.

~*~

By the time everyone had left the courtroom, it was almost nighttime. They all moved to the cafeteria, after Monokuma told them he’d cleaned up the body and crime scene so that they could use the laundry room again. Not really eager to believe the monochrome bear, the students had Kirigiri check on the former crime scene for them; and as it turned out, the bear was telling the truth. Naegi would’ve done it himself, but he had his hands full comforting Sayaka.

“The room was pristine. The body has been removed.” Kirigiri reported. Out of everyone, she seemed the most calm and collected, even after everything they’d been forced to witness. Mondo was the first of them to speak as he clenched his hands.

“Fuck… We don’t even get time to grieve?” The biker tsk’ed.

“Ahh… What of my bedsheets?” Yamada asked as he was slumping forward in his chair. It had been ‘decided’ that Togami would not go without his, and while Sakura did offer hers to Yamada, the otaku just let her keep them.

“They were cleaned once more and folded neatly on the table.” Kirigiri told him calmly, running a hand through her lilac hair. “To be honest, it was as if a murder hadn’t occurred in that room, when I inspected it.”

Junko scowled from her place as she hugged her elbows.

“So much for ‘remembering’ Fukawa’s sacrifice…”

Naegi shook his head as he rubbed Maizono’s back soothingly.

“No… Even if we don’t have a physical reminder, we can’t just forget about her! Or Hagakure. We should walk toward the future, carrying them in our hearts…”

As she nuzzled into him, Maizono nodded sadly in agreement. As a number of them appeared to take time to grieve in their own ways, Asahina spoke up in a chipper tone.

“C’mon, guys! Cheer up! We gotta turn those frowns upside down! ‘Sides, if we all work together, I’m sure we’ll get out of here. Sooo… Let’s all join hands and push forward with a great big smile!” The swimmer mustered the biggest smile she could. However…

“Cut the crap… You’re not making anyone feel any better.” Togami spat out.

“Huh?” Asahina, among others, looked toward the heir with confusion.

“A murder still took place, regardless of your preaching… It won’t be long before we see fallout. Murder isn’t just a fantasy or a nightmare anymore, and everyone here is uncomfortably aware of it.” The air around the blond was smug and arrogant. And though he didn’t seem to agree, Leon acknowledged his point.

“Hagakure mighta fired the first shot… But dude, it’s like Naegi said. The guy never would’ve murdered if Monokuma hadn’t given us those videos!”

Togami turned on the All-Star in aggravation.

“And you don’t think Monokuma can produce the same result again? Manipulation or not, Hagakure has shown what we all are capable of.”

Asahina stared, wide-eyed.

“B-But… We’ve gotta work together and fight back against the Puppetmaster so that no one else gets hurt…!”

“What did I just say? **Cut the crap**!” Togami snarled. “You’re not making anyone feel any better… ‘Fight back’? ‘Work together’? Pah! This isn’t some damn never-ending ninja comic!”

“Or is it…?” Yamada wondered.

“It seems whomever is behind this – the ‘Puppetmaster,’ so to speak – has far more power than we had imagined.” Celes pointed out. “This Puppetmaster has taken over Hope’s Peak Academy – despite its heavy security – and then fortified it even further… He built the seemingly high-tech Monokuma – he assembled a vast store of daily necessities for us… And above all, there’s **that execution** … Far too much effort has been put into all this… That this could be the work of a mere madman is unfathomable… I believe it’s safe to say that resistance is not in our best interests.”

“If so, what are we to do?” Sakura asked.

“I believe I spoke of this before the murder, did I not? We abide by the rules.” Togami crisply replied. “If you absolutely want out… then cheat everyone else and win the game… That’s your only option.”

Fujisaki looked down miserably.

“I… I can’t…”

“What was that?” Togami snapped.

“I don’t want to live… if it means someone else has to die… I can’t bear… to kill anyone else…”

Leon cocked his head.

“Waddya mean ‘else’?”

“Hagakure! He’s dead because we voted for him!” Fujisaki argued. “ **We killed him**!”

“You know we would have gotten killed if we hadn’t voted for him, right?” Junko tried to placate the programmer. “We… didn’t have a choice…”

“Indeed! Any further attempts at self-flagellation and you’ll have crossed the border into masochism!” Yamada chipped in. However, Fujisaki didn’t look any more comforted by their situation.

“Hey, Fujisaki…” Naegi said in a gentle voice. “You’re not the bad guy here. Neither are Hagakure or Fukawa… It’s all **his** doing… All of this is on the Puppetmaster’s hands. He coerced us into casting those ballots… and who knows what would have happened if we said no… He called it an ‘execution,’ but, in the end, the Puppetmaster’s still the one who pulled the trigger! So… it’s not ourselves we should hate… but that damn Puppetmaster!”

Not even a moment after Naegi gave that speech, the school bell rang out, signaling that nighttime had arrived. As usual, Monokuma appeared on the screen, though he had a little more to say this time.

“Ahem, may I have your attention, please? The time is now 10 P.M. ‘Nighttime’ is now in effect. The cafeteria is now off-limits, and the door will be locked momentarily. Oh, and one more thing… There was an ugly trace of self-justification poking its head out of that discussion you guys were having. Here and there and gone and yon… I could whack that mole with my eyes closed! Listen up, and take this to heart… **The act of judging someone** is a heavy cross to bear! Make sure you can feel that weight! Order can only survive on the shoulders of sacrifice and responsibility! And with that, I wish you all a good night. Sweet dreams…”

Junko’s hand twitched as she scowled.

“What… the **hell** was that?!”

“All of this is on us? Somehow, I don’t buy that…” Leon scoffed.

“That piece of shit! Always sayin’ whatever the hell he wants…!” Mondo roared.

Everyone filed out of the cafeteria soon after that – they didn’t have a choice, with nighttime in effect. They dispersed and returned to their rooms, resolving to figure out what to do the next day. Well. Almost everyone went to their own rooms…

“Um… Makoto?”

Naegi noticed the idol hadn’t bothered to leave his side, or move toward her door, which was the next one over.

“What’s up? Want me to stay with you for a while?” The Luckster blushed a little as he knew that suggestion might’ve been… a little too intimate, but considering the events they’d gone through that day, Maizono looked like she needed that intimacy.

Which is why he was a little confused when the idol blushed even more deeply than him.

“W-Well… Sort of. I was actually wondering if you’d be okay if I stayed in your room for the night.”

As Naegi’s brain registered Maizono’s request, his blush deepened as well, and he totally lost his composure. However, his brain soon realized what she really must have been requesting.

“O-O-Oh… You m-mean like a room exchange…”

Sayaka dragged a foot on the ground, and she did not look up at him as her blush did not go away.

“Um… no. I really do mean, can I stay the night with you?” Only now did she look up at the Luckster, and he could see the most serious and hopeful gaze he had seen from her yet. This wasn’t some joke. As he desperately tried to work his jaw, Maizono shyly tried to explain herself. “I-I mean… I know it’s unusual, frowned upon, whatever… I just… I need that reassurance you won’t die on me next… y’know? Even… if it’s just for one night…”

Makoto’s heart thundered inside of his chest a mile a minute, the more Sayaka spoke. She… cared about him that much? Granted, he was the only person she ‘knew’ in this godforsaken place, but he was honestly touched. He was… ecstatic. Excited. And yet… he didn’t want to get carried away. Whatever special connection they had now, that could all go away the minute they left the academy. There was no way an ordinary guy like him would end up with the Ultimate Pop Idol. He shouldn’t even be thinking about that stuff when the thing Maizono needed was companionship after a traumatic experience.

… But he was human, and Makoto couldn’t help but lingering on those thoughts, even if only momentarily.

“S-Sure! I don’t mind!” Makoto yelped out after he realized he’d probably made her wait several moments in uncomfortable silence. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to mind, and her relieved smile was enough to send his heart aflutter again.

“Thanks, Makoto…”

Naegi was not expecting the heartfelt hug… but he did not shy away from it, as his arms wrapped around her waist and he buries his nose in her hair. He could never get enough of her scent.

~*~

“Arms out! Up and down, up and down~! One. Two. Three. Four…”

“One! Two! Threeee! Four!”

“Faster on the up and down! Bring ‘em in, and out again! In and out! Work that muscle tone! Speed and power! Let’s burn that butter!”

… The next morning, Monokuma had summoned them all to the gymnasium. A good number of them dreaded that the monochrome bear was hitting them with another motive so soon… But no… Instead, he attempted to make them do exercises. Most of them didn’t participate – hell, the only gung-ho one was Ishimaru, though that was hardly a surprise.

“Ahh, man… It feels **great** to get a good workout! Being indoors all the time is bad for your body!” The sadistic bear gushed. Leon just rolled his eyes.

“You’re the one who locked us up in here, man…”

“Don’t fret the small stuff! That’s my motto~. Ack! I just said something cool just now, didn’t I? Have I won you over? Have you fallen so hard for me you could die? Is the weight of your love **crushing**?”

“What do you want from us?!” Sakura bellowed. “Surely you did not call us here simply to exercise…”

Monokuma straightened up rigidly.

“Simply… to exercise? Waddya mean, ‘simply’?” He raised his arms threateningly. “You only mock my workout… because **you can’t handle** my workout! The Monokuma Workout is filled to the brim with secret techniques from the Monkey Assassin Style! Techniques passed down through the generations, from a secret fighting style used in an empire of darkness~.”

Yamada just gaped in awe at the childishness.

“That sounds like the kind of embarrassing idea a middle-schooler would come up with…”

Makoto sighed.

“Whatever, just answer the question… Did you really just call us here to do some exercises?”

Monokuma shook with rage.

“Goodness gracious! Heavens no! I don’t have that kind of time!”

“Sooo…?” Makoto prompted him.

“Ahem! I have an announcement! For every Class Trial you survive, **a whole new world** inside the academy will be made available to you!”

“A new world?” Junko cocked her head.

“Don’tcha think it would be kinda suckish if you had to spend your whole lives here without **any** excitement? Plus, you Generation Z-ers start getting all cranky when you run out of things to do! So with that… you’re free to begin exploring. Enjoy **the post-Trial world** to your hearts’ content!” Giggling, Monokuma took his leave. The students were left somewhat flabbergasted by this development.

“ **A new world** …?” Sayaka murmured.

“Like, a way out?” Asahina exclaimed.

Celes frowned.

“The chances of that are low…”

“You can’t say **shit** ‘til you’ve actually looked!” Mondo bellowed.

“Regardless… It seems we need to perform yet another **search of the premises** …” Sakura suggested.

“All right, soldiers! Let’s split up and move out!” Ishimaru declared. “Once we’ve completed our rounds, we’ll rendezvous in the cafeteria for a debriefing!”

Togami rolled his eyes and scoffed.

“Are those the only words you know?”

“It’s called consistency! Now, move out!”

They didn’t need further prompting. The thirteen remaining teens dispersed, with a handful staying on the ground floor to check out the locked areas there. Most of them moved up to the second floor…

~*~

“So, this is the second floor…” Naegi mused as he and Sayaka reached the top of the stairs. Other than the hallway lighting changing a little, the second level of the school gave off the same creepy vibe as the first.

“The hall looks pretty long…” The idol remarked. And she was right. Other than one little turn, which could easily be avoided, and the one branch-off by the stairs that led to some double doors with an anchor painted on them, the corridor looked like it could go on for a while.

“Well, let’s have a look around! If we can’t find an exit, maybe we can find some clue to the Puppetmaster’s identity!” Naegi remained hopeful. Sayaka nodded in agreement, and the two set off for the double doors first, since that was the closest place to check out.

Inside, they found a bunch of lifeguard equipment, two more doors that had what appeared to be card readers next to them, and…

“A Gatling gun?!” Naegi yelped as he took a step back out of instinct. For indeed, there was a gun mounted on the ceiling, pointed at the doors. Implying that there was some rule about who could go through which door.

… In hindsight, Naegi supposed he shouldn’t be surprised by the lengths Monokuma went to for “punishment.” He just hoped no one would fall victim to the gun… That’d be way, **way** too similar to how they lost Hagakure…

“Yeah, you just missed him.” Junko explained as Naegi regained his bearings. The Luckster only just realized that she, Fujisaki, Asahina, and Celes were there in the room, too. “Basically, only girls can go in the left changing room, and only guys can use the right one. We use our ElectroIDs to get in, and he’s gonna update the rules so no one can borrow each other’s IDs.”

Celes folded her hands under her chin pleasantly.

“You can thank me for that. We would not want Yamada or Kuwata to slip in uninvited.”

Naegi sweatdropped as Celes specifically named them. Leon might’ve been a bit of a womanizer, but he wasn’t nearly as bad as Yamada… At least, in Naegi’s humble opinion…

“The changing rooms also have exercise equipment! Fujisaki chirped. But she was easily outdone by Asahina’s enthusiasm.

“ **Naegi**! They have a pool! A **pool**! You gotta take a dip with me!!!”

Naegi grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

“Maybe later, Hina. We still got some investigating to do, don'tcha think? Besides, do you even have a swimsuit?”

Asahina pouted and tilted her head.

“I’ll just swim with my clothes on. No biggie.”

Naegi’s face became a tomato as perverted images ran through his brain of Asahina’s clothes sticking to her well-toned body, and for the first time in a while, he heard Sayaka giggle beside him. And despite his embarrassment, he couldn’t help but crack a small smile. Even if the last trial still plagued her mind, it seemed like Maizono was steadily feeling better. This made him feel a lot better, too.

“Do I need to chaperone you kids~?” The idol teased and stuck out her tongue. Needless to say, Asahina was confused, but the other three girls looked as amused as Sayaka did.

Naegi just pressed on as best as he could, despite his intense embarrassment.

“A-Anyway… I’ll still hafta pass, Hina. I still wanna explore other areas before any… swimming.”

“Aww! Not you, too! These three all passed on it, too.” The swimmer humphed cutely. “Swimming’s always the answer!”

 _’… No, I think that only applies to you, Hina…’_ Naegi dryly thought to himself.

“You’re probably right~. She **is** a swimmer, after all.” Sayaka teased Naegi, making him look gobsmacked at her. Again.

“H-How did you…!?”

“You should know by now, silly~. I’m an esper!” Sayaka chirped. Naegi just twitched a little.

“Yeah, you’re kidding. You just have really good intuition.”

Sayaka tilted her head back and forth cutely.

“Nope~. Definitely psychic!”

“…” No matter what, Naegi was not going to fall for that again. No way, no how.

…… But still… There was always a possibility… Right…?

~*~

“Huh… So there’s a third floor, too… Probably even more.” Naegi muttered as he and Maizono looked at the gate covering up the stairs to the next level. Leon was loitering around that area of the hall, too.

“Yeah… Same deal as before. Oogami couldn’t budge it an inch, and the same goes for the plates on the windows.”

“… I hope we don’t get access to that third floor…” Sayaka wearily sighed. They all knew what they had to do to get another level of the school opened to them, and that just wasn’t worth the price.

“So, what else does this floor have to offer?” Naegi asked the All-Star, who crossed his arms.

“Well… There’s a couple more classrooms, and there’s a library. I didn’t stay to check it out, ‘cause libraries aren’t my thing… Kirigiri, Togami, and tubs stayed, though.”

“How about the first floor? You originally stayed behind with Oowada and Ishimaru, didn’t you?” The idol asked curiously.

“Yeeeah… But Ishimaru kinda gave me the boot, ‘cause the nurse’s office was still locked, and there was only so much in the dorm area that was locked. I’m sure somethin’ opened up there, but Oowada and Ishimaru have it covered.”

Makoto rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“So… We have a pool, some exercise rooms, and a library as the second floor’s ‘main attractions’… It’s not a whole lot to get excited over. But maybe the library…”

“Yeah, I think we should go and check on those guys,” Sayaka agreed. “There might be something in there.”

Leon rubbed the back of his head roguishly.

“Hehe… You guys do that, I’m gonna scope out the pool, if ya catch my drift~.” Leon winked and took his leave. Sayaka groaned in terribly contained exasperation, and Makoto laughed bashfully.

“So, let me get this straight… It’s bad when Leon’s perverted, but when **I** get perverted thoughts, suddenly it’s okay?”

Sayaka puffed out her cheeks adorably.

“It’s different! Very, very different!”

“How?” Naegi was truly baffled.

“It’s cute when it happens to you!”

… Aaand the Luckster was back to doing his impersonation of a tomato…

~*~

The library was clearly the largest room on the second floor. And still, despite its wealth of books, there wasn’t a whole lot that was useful to them. There was an archive room with various files, too – but if there were any hints to the Puppetmaster’s identity planted amongst the shelves, they would be at it for a while, sorting through the “useless” books. Yamada was rather put out there wasn’t any of his doujinshi in that library… But that was neither here nor there.

There _was_ a laptop that didn’t seem to be working. Kirigiri was planning to show it to Fujisaki later, to see if there was anything she could do with it. The last thing was a dusty letter that was left lying out in the open, which in essence explained that Hope’s Peak, for vague reasons that they didn’t go into detail about, was forced to close its doors for an indefinite amount of time. Their current working theory was that it had something to do with why they were trapped and imprisoned there, but without more information, there would be no way to confirm or deny it.

Once Naegi and Maizono had a cursory look around the library and archives, they followed Kirigiri, Togami, and Yamada down to the cafeteria to rejoin their classmates. It wasn’t too much of a surprise that they were the last group to return, but it didn’t look like the others had been waiting too long.

“Good work, soldiers! Does anyone have anything to report?!” Ishimaru initiated the meeting.

“There is a library!” Yamada exclaimed exuberantly.

“There’s a pool! A **pool**! And changing rooms with a whole bunch of exercise equipment!” Asahina added with just as much energy.

“However, there was nothing resembling an exit…” Sakura conceded. Naegi vocally agreed. Ishimaru just nodded his head.

“Despair not, my friends. For I have made a groundbreaking discovery… Listen to this! We now have access to the storeroom and the large bath here in the dormitory! There’s a wealth of food, clothing, and supplies in the storeroom! Why, it’s an exercise in excess! Now we can snack whenever we want!” The prefect chuckled heartily.

Celes placed her hands on her hips.

“Try not to forget that leaving your room at night is forbidden…”

Mondo seemed dissatisfied with all their attitudes.

“And what about the important part: **a way out**?”

Ishimaru hesitated in answering.

“Well, uh… You see…”

“Was there somethin’ in that storeroom we could use to bust outta this joint?!” Mondo’s hand twitched angrily.

“I-I… I regret to inform…”

“Damnit, guys… This ain’t the time to be squealin’ about new places to jerk around in! **We’re trapped in here** , **damnit**! **Trapped**! We’re supposed to be lookin’ for a way out!”

“Now, now… Trying to find faults in everything we do isn’t going to accomplish anything…” Celes chided the biker. “Adaptability. It’s all about being able to adapt… So let’s enjoy being locked up together~!”

“Screw that!” Mondo snarled.

Ishimaru sighed.

“Well, for the time being, continue your recon, and if you find anything, you can make a report then…” The prefect sounded much more dismal than when he had started the meeting.

“So we’re done for the day?” Kirigiri asked for clarification.

“Ah, yeah…” Ishimaru sighed again. He had truly believed they had gained some precious commodities with these new territories to explore – they all had believed that – but to be reminded there was still no sign of a way out… It was disheartening.

Naegi suspected this was the Puppetmaster’s strategy. He would build up their expectations, only to knock them back down; to be honest, that did seem to fit with his “all I want is despair” M.O. Regardless, as tough as it was to swallow, Naegi was not going to lose hope. New discoveries were still waiting to be made, and their group’s harmony was still fairly strong, even after everything that had happened to them thus far.

If only he knew about the **despair** that was to come in the near future…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a lot to add here... A lot of the chap was honestly review of the second floor opening up, but we'll be picking up the plot again next chap with some interactions and the next motive. Hope it's still interesting so far.


	5. Chapter 2, Part 2 Boys' Life of Despair

The following morning, only eleven of the teens made their way to the cafeteria. Ishimaru had been attempting to rouse Togami, to get him to attend the breakfast meeting on time, but when he failed to get the Ultimate Affluent Progeny to answer his door, he reluctantly joined his classmates in the cafeteria. As a unified group, they all volunteered to split up to look for the stuck-up heir. Even if he was a jerk, no one wanted to see another murder…

It just so happened to be Naegi’s luck that he found the fearless Togami, as he went to check the library.

“Togami?!” The luckster let out a surprised yelp. The heir was leisurely reading a book by the light of a lamp, and he didn’t seem to give a damn that Naegi had been looking for him. “Wh-What are you doing?”

“What, does it look like I’m fishing or something?” The heir rolled his eyes. “I’m reading… Be quiet.”

“Oh, sorry…” Naegi apologized out of impulse, before realizing the others were worried sick about him. “Wait, no! What the heck are you doing here? We were worried about you… We’ve all been looking for you! What on earth possessed you to do such a thing?! We all agreed… to have breakfast in the cafeteria, remember?”

“I agreed to that?” Togami snidely replied. “Give me a break… I can’t even relax with a book around here?”

Togami snapped his book closed and stood up in a huff. Just as he did so, Ishimaru and the others came running into the library as well. Apparently, Naegi’s conversation with the heir had been loud enough for the others to hear and get word out that he’d been found.

“So this is where you’ve been, Togami!” Ishimaru accused the heir as he pointed at him in righteous anger.

“The heck are you doin’, man?!” Leon grumbled.

“We were worried…” Sakura frowned in disapproval. Togami just scoffed.

“You had no reason whatsoever to worry about me. I was just reading a book.” He continued to cite that as an excuse, as if there wasn’t anything wrong with that. “I’ve never read such a pedestrian novel before, but I thought it might be of some use in this situation…”

“What were you reading?” Asahina asked curiously.

“A **mystery novel** …” Togami replied dully.

“Um… D-Did you perhaps… intend to make use of one of its tricks…?” Yamada asked nervously.

A few, like Naegi, stared at the otaku in disbelief, but as they all considered the Ultimate Affluent Progeny, and how he’d been acting, that indeed seem very… possible. Well… everyone except Naegi, the undying optimist, considered that possibility.

“Don’t be stupid.” Togami scoffed. Naegi nodded his head.

“What he said!”

“I’ll just use them as inspiration.” Togami smirked arrogantly, catching Naegi off-guard. “When it’s my turn to play the game, I’ll use a trick of my own making. It wouldn’t be nearly as fun if I didn’t. It’s not every day you get the chance to participate in such a palpably intense game, you know… So there’s no point in not enjoying myself…”

With this said, the Togami heir chuckled ominously. Mondo snarled at the blond’s attitude.

“G-Game?! The hell’re you on about?! Enough crazy talk, you little bitch!”

“A game is a game.” Togami sneered. “… and this is a game of life and death… where there can be only one victor… That’s all there is to it.”

“A **zero-sum game**.” Celes mused. At Naegi’s confused glance, she elaborated. “The term comes from game theory… a branch of mathematics… In game theory, a situation like this is referred to as a ‘zero-sum game.’ When resources are finite, one person’s gain results in an equal degree of loss among the other players. Take poker, for example.”

“Like a game of tug-of-war.” Sakura mused. Celes nodded.

“Or a school entrance exam… A vast majority of social interactions can be described as zero-sum games. Each school admits a limited number of students, and your acceptance means another’s rejection… And the same applies to the situation we find ourselves in now, only in this case… the resource we’re competing for… is the **singular title of ‘successful villain.’** ”

“In other words, this was always meant to be a game of King of the Castle.” Togami condescendingly summed up Celes’s explanation.

“This is just… a game of King of the Castle to you?!” Sayaka gaped at the heir in shock.

Celes giggled.

“That’s why I said we need to adapt. If everyone stops wanting to get out, then there’s no need to worry about getting caught up in the game.”

Togami raised an eyebrow at the laidback gambler.

“Why wouldn’t you want to participate in such a thrilling game?” He laughed, as he continued to smirk devilishly.

Celes placed her hands on her hips.

“The possibility of you losing hasn’t even so much as crossed your mind, has it?” At the heir’s arrogant denial, the gambler giggled. “That shouldn’t surprise me, coming from the successor of one of the world’s leading financial giants…”

Junko rolled her eyes.

“Sounds to me like someone is too cocky…”

“And what happens if you die?!” Asahina distressfully asked.

Naturally, Togami stayed consistent with his attitude.

“I won’t die. Not a chance.”

“The **hell’s** your problem?!” Mondo cracked his knuckles.

“You know, I’m surprised…”

“What the hell about?!” Mondo was getting angrier by the minute.

“That the archaic breed of misfits you were plucked from hasn’t gone extinct yet.” Togami sneered.

“I’ll fuckin’ **kill** you…!” Mondo roared.

“I told you once, and I’ll tell you again. I will not be killed.”

Leon sighed in aggravation.

“We’re going in circles here…”

“Say as much as you want, it’s no use. The concept of ‘losing’ doesn’t even exist for him…” Celes mused. “He’s the Ultimate Affluent Progeny, one of the elite, groomed to inherit the Togami group… From birth, he had it drilled into his head that he’s destined to succeed – and he’s accomplished that. Games, tests – to him these all exist for one purpose: to win. Even if it means putting his life on the line. Isn’t that right?”

Togami chuckled in amusement.

“I’m impressed…”

“You and I are one in the same… I, too, believe that games exist to be won.” Celes’s smile was deceptively pleasant.

Togami seemed personally offended by the gambler’s assertion.

“Shut that filthy mouth of yours and don’t go comparing me to the likes of you.”

“My, oh my. I beg your pardon~...” Celes was clearly amused rather than personally insulted.

“Anyway, I do have one thing to say. I hope you all bring the same level of ambition. The game just won’t be nearly as fun otherwise.” Togami’s arms were crossed, and he gave off this dark enthusiasm that made Naegi and all the others realize he was not joking around.

“N-No! You… You can’t!” Fujisaki cried.

“What was that?” Togami ground out as he rounded on the programmer again.

“This… this isn’t a game… Our lives… are at stake…” Fujisaki tried to make him see reason. “We’re all friends… We can’t kill each other… That’s not right!”

“Friends? When did **that** happen?” Togami cruelly replied, confusing the programmer further. “We’re not friends. No, it’s the exact opposite. We’re opponents, all vying for the top spot.”

“B-But… still…”

Togami snarled.

“’But’? Who said you could use that word? A plebian like you need only agree with me.” When Fujisaki continued to try and contradict him, Togami glared at her harder. “If you have something to say, **say it**. If you can’t, then don’t open your mouth at all.”

Fujisaki looked down morosely.

“I-I’m sorry…”

This exchange did nothing to sate Mondo’s fury. If anything, he was more pissed now.

“ **The hell** , man?! You get some sick pleasure outta bullying people weaker than you?! You make me sick!”

“And the buddy-buddy act has started again… How long are you going to keep this up?” Togami shot back.

“ **Fuck you**!”

“’Fuck you’? Really? I can hardly believe my ears. It seems you’re only capable of spewing simpleminded, meaningless drivel.”

Mondo cracked his knuckles again, bearing his teeth.

“ **That’s it**! You’re dead!”

“H-Hey…! Calm down!” Junko grimaced as the biker began to advance on the affluent progeny.

“I **am** fuckin’ calm!” Mondo roared.

“Suuure…” Junko rolled her eyes. Togami turned his back on them.

“In any event… I have no intention of continuing to work with you… I have no desire to waste my time on something so meaningless… as cooperating with my opponents in a game of King of the Castle. And don’t even get me started on those ‘friendly’ meals together. Someone could slip me poison…And I have no interest in consuming my last supper here…”

“You’re nothin’ but freakin’ theatrics!” Mondo snarled.

“You’re on your own from here. Count me out…” Togami deadpanned as he left the library, not looking back even once.

“Is he serious…?” Sayaka wondered worriedly.

“No doubt.” Celes rolled her eyes.

“He ain’t gettin’ away with that…!” Mondo raged. However, he nor anyone else went after the heir. There wasn’t a point. No one was going to change his mind.

And no one else voiced dissent. Togami was the only one who wanted to work alone; even Celes, who so easily compared herself to Togami, was still onboard with cooperation. Togami would be watched, but they would not restrict his freedom. They owed him a modicum of trust as a classmate, until such a time when that would become impossible.

If they couldn’t do that much, they would be no better than Togami himself.

~*~

“So, did ya hear, Naegi?” Leon asked with a lecherous grin as they encountered each other in the hall. The luckster was without Sayaka for once, as the pop idol had vaguely said she had some plans with the other girls that afternoon.

“Um… no?” Naegi scratched his cheek nervously, as he had a feeling that Leon was going to suggest to do something that Maizono wouldn’t… ‘approve’ of…

“The girls are havin’ a pool day! And by girls, I mean Asahina, Oogami, Enoshima, and Maizono! Even Kirigiri might join ‘em for a dip!” The redhead’s face was becoming more perverted by the second. “We should totally check ‘em out! Not like there’s anything wrong with going swimming at the same time as them. It’s just a big coincidence~!”

Naegi sweatdropped. No wonder Celes put him on the same level as Hifumi. And here he’d planned to stick up for the guy, if push came to shove… Oh well. Live and learn…

“My apologies, but that simply will not be possible.”

… Well, speak of the devil.

“Eh? What’s your problem?!” Leon grumbled at Celes. “We’re just doing some male bonding here!”

Celes cranked up her intimidation tactics as she leaned forward menacingly.

“I regret to inform you that Naegi has a prior engagement with me. If you must get up to your perverted shenanigans, you will simply have to find someone else. Like Yamada or Oowada.”

Not needing to be told twice, Leon backed off with a nervous grin and took his leave. Naegi didn’t mind so much that the redhead bailed on him, but he was a mixture of nervousness and curiosity as he was left alone with the Ultimate Gambler.

“So… um… What’s up, Celes?” The brunet somehow managed to keep from sounding too awkward. “Did you wanna hang out?”

Celes averted her eyes slightly as she frowned.

“In a manner of speaking. I mostly wanted to keep you from doing anything lowbrow, but it would be a shame to part ways so suddenly.”

Naegi’s cheeks became slightly pink as Celes directly addressed the whole ‘pervert’ thing. It’s not like he was actually going to take Leon up on his offer! He’d feel… dirty.

“W-Well… Thanks for worrying, I guess, but I was gonna pass on it, anyway. I want Maizono to make friends, too.” Naegi scratched his cheek and also averted his eyes in embarrassment. His blush deepened a little as Celes giggled and put on that pleasant smile of hers, folding her hands beneath her chin.

“Oh, I had a feeling you weren’t vulgar. Call it protecting my own interests, if you will. You are… not like the others. I wish to see your potential, especially since our talents are so similar.”

Ah.

“So… you wanted to play cards or something?”

Celes tilted her head slightly as she looked off to the side.

“Perhaps another time. For now, let us adjourn to the cafeteria, where you can make me some tea, and we can talk.”

Naegi sweatdropped. Didn’t she quench her thirst this morning, bossing Yamada around?

“I take it you want royal milk tea again.”

“Oooh~… You are already a step above Yamada.”

… Yep. He could tell that interacting with Celes was going to be **interesting** …

~*~

“So… how does your ‘luck’ work, Makoto?” Celes asked as she enjoyed her beverage – which she was pleasantly surprised to discover Naegi had gotten exactly right the first time. There was very little in the way of criticism she could give with how he prepared it, and she was seriously considering having him make her the tea from now on, instead of Yamada. “Monokuma has alluded to the fact you can be very ‘unlucky’, and yet our experiences thus far seem to indicate otherwise.”

“Well… my luck’s a bit unpredictable.” Naegi rubbed the back of his head and laughed sheepishly. “Like, take how I got into Hope’s Peak. Or the day I got the acceptance letter, anyway. I decided to change my daily routine just one time, and take the long way home, but that wrapped me up in a bunch of unfortunate incidents…”

As the Luckster regaled her, Celes looked more intrigued by the minute. By the end, Celes satisfyingly clinked her tea cup on the plate in front of her.

“That all sounds very thrilling… But I wonder, do you think you were lucky that day, or unlucky?”

Naegi scratched his cheek sheepishly.

“I don’t think you can call that one day ‘just’ good luck, or ‘just’ bad luck… There was kind of… both.”

“Mmm.” Celes hummed. “But you agree that luck can be good or bad, and that there is no in-between, yes?”

Naegi rubbed the back of his head.

“… I guess? That’s the whole point of luck, isn’t it? You’re fortunate or unfortunate.”

“Then how about overall? Taking into account all of the events, how would you rate that day?” Celes seemed to have an opinion herself, but she appeared to want to hear Naegi’s first.

Naegi released a small sigh and reflected on it. Sure, despite how ‘unlucky’ he was that day, **overall** , the day turned out okay. A diamond thief was arrested, and Naegi got that letter from Hope’s Peak. Of course, he had no idea what he would be getting into by accepting, but… going strictly by that day…

“I guess it turned out pretty well.” Naegi admitted with a wry grin. “Bunch of unlucky stuff happened, but it turned out well enough.”

Celes seemed pleased with his answer as she folded her hands under her chin.

“You see? Unpredictable your luck might be, it still suits you as the Ultimate Lucky Student. You might think you are unlucky at the time, but every single one of those moments add up into something you cannot foresee until you look back at them later. Perhaps our imprisonment here will be no different for you. If we are lucky, some of that fortune will spread to us as well…”

Naegi sweatdropped as he took in everything Celes said. He honestly wasn’t sure what to think of “the ends justify the means” concept. He could **hope** that things would turn out okay, but Hagakure and Fukawa wouldn’t be getting that happy ending. And who knew if they would manage to escape with the remaining thirteen of them? Monokuma obviously wasn’t done with them…

Well, it wasn’t like him to dwell on the negative like that. He worried about the future, of course, but he had faith they could stay united.

“Yeah… Dunno if I’d want everyone to suffer my bad luck, but I hope you guys can escape eventually because of it…”

Rather than chide him about “adapting,” as Naegi was sort of expecting, Celes adopted a contemplative look.

“… I think I will share my perfect gambling strategy with you, after all.” The gambler nodded, as if it was a foregone conclusion.

“Perfect gambling strategy? Is there really such a thing?” Naegi couldn’t help but ask. The gambler smiled pleasantly.

“Naturally. Strategy is important in whatever game you play, but there is always one factor that can even override the best strategies… and that is **luck**.”

“Luck…?” Naegi parroted. This seemed more like ‘common sense’ than a secret, perfect strategy, but he’d listen to what Celes had to say.

“As mentioned, luck comes in two varieties – good and bad. There is no in-between. From birth, our luck is built into us. Like a computer program. Some call it fate, but the bottom line is that **luck is life**.”

“So you’re saying, the reason you never lose…” Naegi prompted her, having a feeling he knew what she’d say.

“Exactly. I never lose because I’ve been programmed with good luck for gambling. And yet, you are the Ultimate Lucky Student, yes? I wonder if your luck exceeds mine… I am excited to find out one of these days~...”

Naegi could tell Celes was amused, and that she really was looking forward to it. Though he himself was a bit nervous now, the two kept on talking like that for another hour, exchanging stories, before the girls returned from their pool outing. Despite not understanding Celes too well due to having to see through any lies she could be telling, Naegi felt like he got to know her better. In spite of everything, they bonded a little.

~*~

Naegi scratched his head a little when the doorbell rang.

“It’s getting close to nighttime… Wonder what’s up?” The luckster muttered, opening the door to see the sheepish face of the Ultimate All-Star that Celes had scared off, earlier.

“Y-Yo!” The ginger laughed, rubbing the back of his head casually. “You got a minute?”

Having no reason to refuse, Makoto nodded his head absently.

“Need to talk?” The brunet guessed. His brow furrowed as the baseball player denied that.

“Nah… Actually, mind comin’ to the cafeteria a sec? Need your, uh… help… with somethin’.” Leon crossed his arms, looking off to the side.

Again, no reason to decline, the luckster trudged behind Kuwata all the way to the cafeteria. Kuwata grinned a little too wide and made a gentleman gesture, shooing Naegi ahead of himself. Being the trusting soul he is, Naegi didn’t question it.

No, his attention was caught by the sheer, palpable tension in the room. Looking over at the source of the tension revealed…

“Oowada? Ishimaru?” Makoto wondered aloud, drawing their attention to him instantly.

“Excellent timing, Naegi!!” Ishimaru proudly greeted the luckster, arms crossed.

“What for???” Makoto’s brow furrowed.

Oowada scoffed loudly, clenching his fist in frustration.

“Didn’t expect Kuwata to skip out on an epic smackdown… Oh well! Naegi! I got a favor to ask ya!”

At the mention of the baseball star, Naegi looked to his side and behind him, but the redhead was nowhere to be seen. The luckster stared at the… eager biker with an inkling of dread.

_‘Dunno if I like the sound of that…’_ He also didn’t think he liked the fact Leon dumped him into this tumultuous situation…

“Yo, Naegi… We need a **witness**.” Mondo went on, oblivious to the luckster’s troubled thoughts.

“A witness? For what?” Naegi couldn’t stop himself from asking.

Mondo shot a pointed look at Ishimaru.

“This little bitch has been running his mouth, sayin’ I need to grow a pair…”

Ishimaru barked out a chuckle.

“If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be so quick to violence!” Ishimaru pointed accusingly right back at Mondo. “If you didn’t, you wouldn’t ignore our society’s rules and go riding around in your little biker gang!”

Mondo quivered in barely contained rage.

“What… did you say…? What the hell… do you know…?!”

“You have long since been defeated by yourself!” Ishimaru pressed on heatedly. “If you really had a pair, you’d readily admit that!!”

“So, what, are you sayin’ you got bigger balls than me?!” Mondo gritted his teeth. At Ishimaru’s affirmative, he roared. “Then we’ll have a **contest** … If you say you’ve got bigger balls, **then show me what you got!!!** ”

“ **As you wish**!” Ishimaru readily agreed.

Mondo turned his full attention to Makoto.

“And that’s where you come in, Naegi! You’re the neutral witness!”

Makoto sweatdropped at the whole situation. He scratched his cheek nervously.

“When you say ‘contest’… you’re not gonna, like, fight each other, are you?”

Mondo, to Naegi’s relief, shook his head.

“You know the bath just across from here? There’s a sauna in there, too…”

Ishimaru chuckled again, hands on his hips.

“I see… Simple and decisive… **Whoever can handle staying in the sauna the longest** is the winner!”

“You fuckin’ got it, bitch!” Mondo roared in agreement.

… Naegi really wondered how he kept getting caught up in strange situations like this… Was he simply too nice? Unable to say “no” when the request wasn’t unreasonable, just… weird?

… Evidently, since he followed them to the changing room.

“You’re really gonna do this?” Makoto asked one last time.

“Fuck yeah we are…!” Mondo affirmed. Ishimaru pointed accusingly at Mondo again.

“You’re not going to last more than a few minutes! Everyone knows that people like you are all talk!”

Mondo cracked his knuckles threateningly.

“Oh, you are just **asking** for it…! Fine, I’ll take a **handicap**! Not much fun if I don’t give you a fighting chance!”

“A handicap?” Naegi asked blankly.

“I’ll go in **with my clothes on**!” Mondo announced stubbornly. Ishimaru recoiled in shock.

“Wh-What?! That’s **suicide** …!”

“What? You chickening out?” Mondo challenged mockingly.

“Y-You’ll regret this…!” Ishimaru shot back.

“Shaddup! Let’s do this!”

“…” Makoto watched in disbelief as Ishimaru disrobed and went in with Mondo, who was fully-clothed. Several minutes passed, but he could hear them from in the changing room.

“O-Oowada…!” Ishimaru coughed out.

“What the hell you want?!” Mondo grated out.

“If you want, you can take off your uniform… and I’ll let you off with just a chuckle…”

Mondo scoffed.

“How ‘bout you worry about you and me deal with me? Your face is red, it’s like a baboon’s ass!”

“My face… is naturally red!” Ishimaru rebutted.

“Quit actin’ tough…” Mondo rolled his eyes.

“A-Acting tough?” Ishimaru let loose an uneasy chuckle. “I’m nowhere near through! I could even go for a nice, hot bowl of udon!”

“…” Despite himself, Makoto couldn’t help but ask after a few more minutes. “Uh… Are you guys alright?”

They paid him no mind. A few more minutes turned into ten… then an hour…

“D-Don’t you hink… it’s about hime… you gave fup?” Ishimaru challenged.

“You can’t… even talk right anymore…” Mondo huffed and panted.

“Wh-Whah are you halking abouh?! I’m jush fine! Ahually… I’m sharhing hoo feel kinha… cold…” Ishimaru was heavily panting, too.

“That ain’t good, man…” Mondo muttered.

“U-Uh… Guys? There’s really no need to be so stubborn! Don’t you think… this has gone on long enough?” Makoto reasonably asked.

“ **Shaddup!!!** ”

_‘Well, whatever happens, it’s not on me…’_ Makoto thought to himself. And lo and behold, shortly after thinking that, the nighttime announcement rang out.

“You hear that?” Makoto called out. “It’s nighttime. We can just call it a draw…”

“There are no draws… in a hrue conhesh!” Ishimaru reasoned nonsensically. “The only thing thah mahhers… is who wins and who loses!”

“You said it… bitch… You fuckin’ said it!!!” Mondo agreed wholeheartedly. “Bring it on… I-I’m in this… to the deepest pits of hell!”

_‘To the deepest pits of hell? They might be in it for that long, but I’m sure not!’_ Makoto decided for himself.

“Hey, uh, sorry, but…” Makoto rubbed the back of his neck apologetically.

“Uh, yeah… You go back to your room!” Mondo called out. “I-I’ll tell you all about it… tomorrow… You’ll be tellin’ your kids… stories about me… for years…”

“Look forwarh… ho homorrow morhing!” Ishimaru’s voice rang out as well. “I’ll have this hoohlum… k-kneeling at my feeh…”

“Y-You say that… but I can see it in your face… You’re through…!” Mondo chuckled.

“Y-You meah **you** are!!”

Makoto just stared at the door to the sauna, stupefied.

“… Good night… guys…”

~*~

The next morning, Makoto woke up with a lingering sense of dread. He hoped neither Mondo nor Kiyotaka had fallen asleep in the sauna, breaking Monokuma’s “sleeping in class” rule…

But when he got to the cafeteria…

“Gahaha! What are you talkin’ about, Brah?!” Mondo laughed uproariously, giving Ishimaru a thumbs-up.

“Hahaha! You’re the one who should quit fooling around, Brohan!” Ishimaru laughed right back, clearly in a much better mood as well.

“…” Makoto didn’t have any idea how to respond to what he was seeing. It completely went against the rivalry he witnessed last night… By the looks of it, he wasn’t the only one looking weirded out by the display – Sayaka’s brow was furrowed, Junko’s nose was scrunched up, and Fujisaki was blinking owlishly.

“Yo, Naegi!” Mondo grinned at the luckster.

“You have my gratitude, Naegi, for serving as our witness last night!” Ishimaru laughed heartily.

“Witness?” Sayaka repeated, as if tasting the flavor of the word.

“You guys are getting along…?” Makoto asked skeptically.

Asahina shrugged haplessly.

“They’ve been creeping on each other all morning. Arms around each other’s shoulders, giggling at each other…”

“You callin’ this creepy?!” Mondo raged. “Surely you meant to say **stimulating** , didn’t ya?!”

Asahina, Maizono, and Enoshima reeled back, very creeped out.

“Was that sexual harassment **and** intimidation **at the same time**?!” Asahina gaped.

Ishimaru placed his hands on his hips, shaking his head.

“You’re wasting your breath, Broseidon… A woman would never understand **the depth of two men’s bonds** …” The prefect chuckled to himself. He then raised his fist victoriously. “Unlike women, a man’s friendship is thicker than blood!!!”

“Well said, Broski…” Mondo laughed. “Mind if I get a tattoo of that somewhere?”

“Your parents only gave you one body, Browada! You should really take care of it!”

Makoto really dreaded to ask, but his curiosity wouldn’t let him stay silent.

“So, hey… Who won last night?” The luckster immediately regretted asking as both guys were in his face.

“Who fuckin’ gives a shit?!” Mondo roared.

“A meaningless question! What matters is we competed **together**!!!”

“That’s not what you were saying yesterday…” Makoto scratched his cheek nervously. He barely noticed Sayaka instinctively pulling him more toward her, protectively – eyes narrowed at the two overzealous guys.

“I’d be lying if I wasn’t a little curious what you forced Naegi-kun into yesterday… But if I heard about it, I think I’d get mad…” The idol deadpanned, clutching the luckster possessively.

Leon rubbed the back of his head nervously.

“Kinda glad I don’t know the full story! Thanks for taking one for the team, Naegs!”

“Easy for you to say, you threw me into the lion’s den without a way out.” Naegi muttered dryly.

“… Every man for himself?”

The baseball player continued laughing sheepishly, but instantly shivered and shied away from the idol’s hawklike glare – though Enoshima’s frosty glare somehow easily rivaled the overprotective singer’s.

“Unlike women… men’s friendship is very simplistic…” Sakura humphed, arms crossed.

“You got that right…” Asahina sighed.

~*~

Makoto smiled softly as he watched Hina and Sakura do laps around the pool. He leaned back on his arms, sitting at the pool’s edge in his swim trunks.

“I just can’t keep up with those two… But it’s not like that’s a bad thing.” The luckster’s tone was fond and reflected the admiration he held for the two athletes.

From next to him, wearing her own one-piece swimsuit, Sayaka smiled at the brunet placatingly.

“You don’t have to push yourself to compete with Hina… I mean, she’s won all sorts of swimming competitions, right? Not even Sakura is actually keeping up with her… She’s just… much more physically trained.”

Makoto chuckled sheepishly.

“I know… I just couldn’t say ‘no’ when she begged for a race like that. Hina said I was too soft, and swimming was a ‘perfect’ way to start training my body… It doesn’t help that I think Sakura still intends to oversee some weight training with me after this. Still, they both care about my health and safety in here, so I can’t blame them from going a little overboard…”

Sayaka’s smile shrank as she stared down at the floor contemplatively.

“’Soft’, huh… What’s wrong with that? Your strength just… lies elsewhere. You shouldn’t have to do physical training if you don’t want to!”

Makoto held up his hands peacefully.

“I won’t go overboard, I promise! I just don’t see the harm in a **little** exercise… I can’t help indulging them a little, when Hina lights up like that!”

“Give ‘em an inch, and they’ll take a mile, herbivore man!” Junko muttered over by the bleachers, still in her clothes. She inspected her nails casually, even as both Makoto and Sayaka shot her withering or dry glares. “Hey, it’s ‘cause you’re so agreeable you let Oowada and Ishimaru drag you into their crap last night, right? I’m just sayin’. Might not be so good to let people walk all over you.”

“Not to mention Kuwata using you like that…” Sayaka muttered sourly, agreeing with the sentiment, at least in part. “But I don’t think Naegi-kun’s the problem, the others are the ones that need to reel themselves in!”

Junko snorted at the thought, leaning her elbows on her legs and cradled her face in her hands.

“The airheads and the meatheads restraining themselves? I’d pay money to see that!”

“Who’re you calling an airhead?!” Asahina cried out, emerging from the pool a little ways away from Naegi. Junko simply shot her a peace sign and gave a Cheshire grin.

“Oops, I’m sorry! Do you prefer donut slut? ‘Cause I think you might be a bit of both~!”

Asahina crossed her arms stubbornly and snorted out steam a little in aggravation.

“I’m **not** an airhead! Or a spaz! What’s wrong with **doing** stuff?! Or getting hyped about things?! Wearing shorts in winter isn’t weird, either!”

Makoto and Sayaka sweatdropped as the swimmer devolved into mutterings about the subject and a few semi-related tangents.

“Sooo… Nah on the spaz, but yeah on the whoring out for donuts?”

… Did Junko’s Cheshire grin get bigger?

Asahina blushed heavily as she finally registered the second taunt.

“Wh… What the heck?! I-I’m not a…!” And just like that, the swimmer bounced from flustered to outraged. Shaking a fist at the fashionista aggravatedly, Hina growled out. “Just ‘cause I like training means I can’t eat donuts?! Who decided that?!”

It was easy to tell this was escalating a little too much… Makoto, kind and gentle soul he was, tried to play the mediator.

“H-Hey… Enoshima’s not saying **that** , Hina… It’s just… donuts have calories…!” The luckster quailed a bit under the swimmer’s fierce glare.

“Don’t make excuses for her! I’ll just burn those calories right off! **Why can’t I like donuts** , **huh**?!”

Maizono narrowed her eyes at Hina warningly.

“Don’t take your anger out on Naegi-kun! He didn’t say you couldn’t like donuts!”

But Asahina wasn’t listening anymore.

“Graaah! You guys just don’t **get it**! Just for that, I need some donuts **right now**!” And without another word, the swimmer took off.

Makoto could only heave a sigh in response. Sayaka growled in annoyance. And Junko just continued grinning away. Sakura finished her laps not long after, and approached the trio questioningly – Junko merrily explained where the swimmer ran off to. The fighter crossed her arms patiently.

“My apologies for Hina’s outburst… She does not mean ill by it.”

Makoto nodded in understanding, shooting Sakura a tired smile.

“Yeah, I know! Hina’s one of the kindest, sweetest people here. I don’t hold anything against her.”

“Enoshima’s the one at fault.” Maizono grumbled, shooting the fashionista an irritated look.

Of course Junko was back to examining her nails and not giving a damn.

Sakura smiled fondly at the considerate pair.

“Thank you. Being imprisoned here has been tough on Hina. She needs friends like you to make it through this ordeal… I try my best to be there for her, but I fear some of the others are getting to her, and it brings her down… I do not want her vitality, her love for life, to be snuffed out. It’s too precious of a thing to lose.”

Makoto’s grin softened. He could completely understand and agree with that. He blushed a bit when Sayaka hugged one of his arms and gushed about his own infectious optimism. Personally, he didn’t think his optimism could compare to that simple, but powerful, love for life that Hina possessed... Optimism could be misplaced at times. But loving life? How could that ever be a bad thing?

… Still… As nice as things had been lately, Makoto just knew Monokuma was going to rain on their parade, and soon. They’d all been a little too “happy”… and the luckster knew all too well the sadistic bear despised their camaraderie.

~*~

“What could Monokuma **possibly** want with us at this late hour…” Ishimaru bit his fist nervously as they were all gathered in the gymnasium again. They’d had about a day of Ishimaru and Mondo’s buddy-buddy-ness, and many of them had been starting to think another murder would never happen. The new areas of the facility opened to them, as well as the strengthening bonds between them, was instilling them with hope.

“I’m curious to see what will happen this time.” Celes mused. It wasn’t as if they were ignorant to the potential reason Monokuma had summoned them.

“Just as I was starting to get bored…” Byakuya snickered. Hifumi just stared at him.

“Why are you ‘bwahahaha’ing? Are you incapable of putting on a more pleasant face? Such as, say, the beaming smile shown at the close of each episode of our nation’s beloved housewife anime…?”

“I’m more concerned about the fact that he can laugh **at all** right now…!” Asahina gritted out as tears pricked at her eyes. Togami just snorted.

“Who is it you should **really** be concerned about?” At Asahina’s confused stare, he rolled his eyes. “Forget it… I was just expressing my amazement… You don’t want to live here, but you don’t want to kill anyone. You’ve rejected every option given to you… and are just wasting time away – without a goal. I’m amazed you can live with yourselves like that.”

“I… I have an idea or two…!” Asahina defended herself. Togami rolled his eyes again.

“Ah, yes… Weren’t you going on about how you were so certain **the police** would come and save us? How did that ever turn out? I don’t see any evidence of us having been rescued.”

“W-Well, um…” The swimmer stuttered. “What **is** going on with that?”

“It is rather strange.” Kirigiri concurred. “The police couldn’t possibly overlook something like this happening in a school in the middle of the city.”

“The police are useless!” Yamada asserted.

Celes held her knuckle over her mouth contemplatively.

“Or perhaps the Puppetmaster has so much power he can control even the law enforcement…”

Leon rubbed the back of his head and scowled.

“Well… this might be totally irrelevant…”

“If it’s ‘totally irrelevant’, should we really be talking about it?” Junko tilted her head. The baseball star huffed.

“Just listen, alright? I was chillin’ in the entrance hall again, when I heard something. It was too far away for me to tell what it was, but if I had to try and place a name to it… I guess… it sounded like there was a construction site nearby? Y’know, like they were building or tearing down stuff…”

Byakuya scoffed.

“You were probably just imagining it… If our capture and imprisonment didn’t attract enough attention to Hope’s Peak, construction certainly would have done the trick…”

“What? What? Whatcha talkin’ about~?” And just like that, the monochrome bear popped out from behind the podium, like he usually did. “Kuwata didn’t hear construction sounds… he heard **explosions and stuff**!”

“Explosions?” Naegi echoed in disbelief.

“Like machine guns firing… Upupu, they’re not unlike sounds you would hear at a construction site!”

“Wh-What are you talking about…?” Maizono dreaded the answer. Monokuma just laughed.

“My lips are sealed, and I’ve thrown away the key~. It’s classified! Top Secret!”

“Then at least tell us what you **can** …” Kirigiri replied tersely. “Why did you want us all to come here?”

Monokuma cocked his head at the mysterious girl.

“You’re an impatient one! Gettin’ down to business! But first things first: I’ve got some complaints of my own… I’ve been feeling kinda blue lately… My stitches are comin’ loose, and I’m not as bright as I used to be… I think the problem is… **I’m bored out of my mind**! I need some excitement! Some danger! Some witty one-liners! If ya don’t mind me bein’ blunt about it… **This sucks**! We need another villain up in here, like, **nowish**! And it is for this reason I have decided to present you guys with your next **incentive**!”

“I-Incentive?!” Naegi blurted out on impulse. Around him, the others were similarly horrified. “You mean like those videos? Are you saying you’re going to show us something crazy again to and try to incite another murder?”

Monokuma shook angrily.

“Incite another murder?! You’re makin’ me sound like the bad guy!”

Ishimaru raised his fist in determination.

“I-I don’t know what you’re plotting, but no one else is going to kill anyone! Try whatever you want, it’s not happening!” The hall monitor pointed accusingly at the monochrome bear, who just giggled.

“Oh really? That’s nice. Give it your best shot. Well, I’m gonna get started here. Ahem. The theme of today’s incentive… **is shameful memories and deep, dark secrets**! Everyone who’s ever lived has accumulated their fair share of shameful memories and deep, dark secrets… So I’ve taken it upon myself to do a little digging and uncover all the **skeletons** in your closets!” The bear raised its hand proudly. “That top-secret information is right here in my hand, sealed within these **envelopes** … I will be distributing them in just a moment… so check out what I’ve dug up!”

With this said, Monokuma threw the envelopes at the students, somehow making sure that each one landed at the feet of the designated owner. However, all thirteen teenagers were frozen as they soon realized the envelopes did **not** have their names on them, but rather, that they had received a seemingly random classmate’s secret.

Leon’s temple sweated as he gave a shaky grin at the monochrome bear.

“H-H-Hey… Uh… I think there’s been a mix-up…?” At his feet lay an envelope with Yamada’s name on it.

Monokuma simply giggled at the dawning horror on all their faces.

“Nooope~! I decided to go with a **buddy system** theme!” Monokuma cleared his throat exaggeratedly. “Ahem. Allow me to explain! Isn’t it just the worst that you’ve got a horrible, terrible secret that you wouldn’t sanely trust with somebody else? Well, this motive fixes that! Each of you bastards has a secret that is not your own, and I’ll leave it up to you how you wanna interact with your designated buddy! Howeverrr~ There are a few catches! First! You **must** read what is in that envelope! Refusing to read, or destroying the motives to avoid reading them, will be considered a rule violation! Second! To give you bastards a time limit, you have until tomorrow’s morning announcement to get through that bit of light reading~! I’ll be keeping an eye on you guys, so the sauna is **off-limits** until you read the dirt I dug up on your buddy~! Third! Whether you share that secret like airing out dirty laundry, or whether you keep it under your hat, I could care less! Just make sure **you** are the first person that reads your buddy’s secret, and you’re golden~! Not even your buddy is allowed to read it until **you** have perused its contents! As long as you follow these three critical rules, no one will be punished by me, your freakishly adorable Headmaster! Are there any questions?!”

As Monokuma gleefully concluded explaining the rules for the second incentive, Makoto stared down at his envelope, and his face became ashen at seeing the name on it.

_‘M-Maizono…? I’ve got Maizono’s secret…?’_ Makoto was truly baffled at the sheer odds. Sure, he was glad that no one else would invade Sayaka’s privacy without her permission… But he himself would still be forced to do that, at least if he wanted to avoid violating the rules…

Makoto’s brow furrowed as he looked over to Sayaka, who looked beyond scared that someone else had one of her worst secrets… Maybe he couldn’t allow her to see the specific secret without first reading it himself, as that was Monokuma’s stupid rule, but he… he would at least reassure her that no one else but him would see it. Makoto **had** to at least give her that small level of comfort. He felt awful that he couldn’t do more for her…

“So… We have just until tomorrow morning before a classmate learns something bad about us?!” Junko gritted her teeth at the bear. Monokuma released a contented sigh.

“Yup, yup! I considered airing out your dirty laundry to the whole world, but this is much more thrilling! You bastards yammer on and on about harmony and the status quo, but when ya get down to it, how far does your **trust** in each other **reeeally** go? How zealously do you guard that skeleton in your closet? Can ya even be sure **that** particular skeleton is the one I dug up? When it comes down to it, can ya **risk it**? I don’t even hafta set a timer on when the next **blackened** shows up, ‘cause some of you bastards are so wound up tight I could build a grandfather clock around ya! Ahh, I can’t wait, I can’t wait~! Who’s gonna snap this time?! I hope you prove more entertaining than the last dumbass!”

Ishimaru’s nostrils flared as he raised a fist at Monokuma challengingly.

“We will… We will **not** cave to your demands this time…! As shameful as my past mistakes are, I will **not** kill anyone for discovering them! I am certain the same goes for everyone else!”

Others were a little slower in backing Ishimaru up, but support still came.

“Y-Yeah…!” Asahina was blushing a beet red. “E-Even if it’s… embarrassing… I’m not gonna **kill** anyone over it…!”

“That is correct. We will not bow to you again.” Sakura glared with determination at the monochrome bear.

“We’ll stay united!” Makoto agreed with everyone else. “Even if these secrets are really personal… We’ll **never** turn on each other…!”

Monokuma hung his head sadly.

“W-Well, **crap** … I figured ‘memories’ was a great word to make you guys think about the outside world… And there’s also the fact you don’t want anyone to know about them… So I just thought this was a great way to – y’know!” The bear turned his back to the students morosely. “Siiigh… I guess this means no one’s gonna die! Laaame… Well, whatever. At the very least, I’ll enjoy what little satisfaction I can squeeze from revealing your secrets to your respective buddies tonight… That awkward moment when you realize it was all for nothing… Gonna cry myself to sleep now… Bawww…”

With all that said, Monokuma waddled off, but a number of people didn’t look like they bought his tactless display. He was clearly expecting one of them to snap from the pressure. Not everyone was that perceptive, though.

“I was kinda scared at first… but it looks like we all dodged a bullet.” Asahina mused. She smiled sheepishly. “I mean, yeah, having our secrets spilled is kinda embarrassing… but there’s no way that’s enough incentive to commit murder… you know?”

… Hina said that, but as some of them looked around at their fellow classmates, they could see the clear tension and distress. Some, like Togami and Celes, hid it well. Others, like Kuwata and Yamada, looked uncomfortable. And still others, like Oowada and Maizono, appeared extremely anxious.

Ishimaru crossed his arms and furrowed his brow in concentration.

“Soldiers! I have a proposition. After we follow Monokuma’s… rules… about these secrets, why don’t we just get them all out in the open?! That way, none of us become targets! If we are transparent, we all can overcome any uneasy feelings about our secrets getting out, because we’ll be in this **together**!”

Togami snorted derisively at the prefect’s suggestion.

“You expect **transparency** in a motive designed to pick at old wounds? I’ll say it once, and I’ll say it again… **count me out**.” He sneered at the flabbergasted hall monitor. “It’s bad enough I will have to discipline one of you for knowing too much… To whoever has my secret – know that I **will** find you, and we **will** be having a nice, long **talk**. I will not kill you, of course… But you will wish that I did.”

“Even if I wanted to share… it’s not possible.” Celes murmured, hands clasped together calmly. “I, too, shall have to correct any misconceptions a person shall have about my ‘secret’… This truly is unfortunate.”

Junko flashed a nervous smile and peace sign.

“Y-Yeah… I don’t really feel up to sharing, either… Sorry, guys…”

Sayaka was hugging herself tightly, frowning anxiously.

“… I don’t think I want to share my secret, either…” Though she was aware at least one person would have to know about one of her past sins…

“A-And what about you, Fujisaki?” Ishimaru asked tentatively.

Chihiro bowed her head.

“Um… I’m sorry… I really don’t want to say anything right now… But… But… I can’t go on like this, so I promise I’ll tell you later… I’ll work really hard… so I’m strong enough… to tell everyone…”

“If you don’t wanna, you don’t have to force yourself.” Asahina assured the brunette. “Truth is, I don’t wanna say anything either…”

Mondo hung his head in shame.

“As much as I don’t wanna admit it, Brozum… with this much resistance, it looks like you’re outvoted…”

Kirigiri, Sakura, and Leon hadn’t said anything yet, but with at least half the class electing not to share their secrets, it looked like their votes weren’t going to make any difference.

“W-Well… It is what it is…” Ishimaru appeared really conflicted. He shook his head back and forth. “R-Regardless, no one here is going to commit murder over something so trivial as this…”

_‘Yeah…’_ Naegi mentally agreed with the hall monitor. _‘No one’s got a past so dark, they’d go so far as killing someone… just to keep it hidden… Right?’_

Ishimaru stood at attention.

“While the motion to reveal our secrets early has failed… I recommend you all prepare yourselves before the morning announcement deadline expires! Having our pasts out on display _is_ shameful, but that shame weighs far less than another human’s life! So, uh… don’t make any hasty decisions…”

“The more you stress the point, the more you stress me out, too…” Yamada grumbled.

“O-Oh… My apologies… I know it’s unthinkable, but…” Ishimaru trailed off with a sigh. The nighttime announcement rang out, cutting out whatever he would have said. When the announcement ended, it was Junko who spoke next, cracking a reassuring grin as much as possible.

“Anywho… It’s late… Let’s just call it a night, get some rest…”

“I agree. We should all use this time to prepare for tomorrow.” Sakura concurred.

Hesitantly, the students dispersed for the night. Most went off by themselves, clutching their envelopes distressfully.

“Hey, Maizono…?”

… Naegi was one of the exceptions, giving the idol his best reassuring grin as he approached her in the gym, shortly after most had left. Sayaka rubbed at her eye tiredly.

“Naegi-kun?”

Sayaka felt her breath hitch as Makoto held up the envelope with her name on it.

_‘Why him…?’_ Sayaka thought to herself with mixed emotions. _‘Why did it have to be him…?’_

Still, even as Maizono had this inner conflict with herself – profound relief that it was somebody she could trust that ended up with her secret, yet unprecedented horror and anxiety at what Naegi’s reaction would be to her past sins – Naegi did his best to reassure his friend.

“Do you… wanna go to my room for a bit? So we can talk?”

Unable to voice words, Sayaka slowly, hesitantly nodded her head. If she was going to deal with the anxiety of Naegi finding out her secret, she was going to get it out of the way as soon as possible. No matter what his reaction would be, it would be incomparably better than her mind’s paranoia that would run rampant if left alone in her soundproofed bedroom…

The pop idol felt a little life return to her as the luckster spoke his next words with conviction.

“Maizono, I promise whatever dark past you might have had… I’m not going to abandon you. We all make mistakes, and I bet we all have things we wish that we could take back… But I’ll **definitely** put my faith in the current you! I **will** trust our friendship!!”

Somehow, Maizono mustered a small, grateful smile as she allowed the luckster to take her by the hand and lead her to his room.

~*~

“……od………ing…” A voice stirred Naegi the next morning. “…Go……Morn…Go…od…..morning… Good morning!”

As Naegi’s bleary eyes recognized the form of Monokuma on his bed, he couldn’t help it… He let out a scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot going on in this chapter, but undoubtedly, my own favorite bits were the unveiling of the second motive toward the end. I think this will stir things up quite a bit. :3 Looking forward to the next chapter, the second murder taking place and the investigation. I hope you're still enjoying it, at least a little!


	6. Chapter 2, Part 3: Boys' Life of Despair

“AHHHHHHH….!” Makoto screamed long and hard at being awoken by Monokuma literally hopping on top of his bed without a care in the world.

“Upupu… You never let me down… That was a perfect reaction!” Monokuma laughed at Naegi’s overreaction to the different wakeup call.

“Wh-What the hell?! Why are you in here?!” The Luckster demanded.

Monokuma sighed contentedly.

“I’m trying something new! Instead of using the PA system, I came to wake you up myself!”

“But **why**?”

“’Cause it’s fun~! And since I’m here, there’s something I wanna tell you...”

“Which would be…?” Naegi deadpanned.

“Aren’t you a bit **toooo** relaxed? I mean, word around the water cooler is that **something’s happened** to one of your buddy-buddy classmates!” Monokuma callously announced.

“Huh?!”

“What’s the matter? You look like someone tried to chop your head off with a dull axe and gave up halfway!” The bear was having entirely too much fun…

“ **Something happened**?! What do you mean something happened?!”

Monokuma just laughed at the Luckster’s expense.

“Upupu! Figuring that out is your responsibility! Good luuuck!” With that ominous farewell, Monokuma took his leave. For several moments, Naegi just sat there in bed, unwilling to believe that another classmate had…

No. He wasn’t going to even entertain that thought. Naegi threw off the covers, slipped on his shoes, and rushed off to the cafeteria…

~*~

When Makoto reached the cafeteria, he was immediately tackle-hugged by Sayaka, who was deeply relieved he was okay.

“There you are, Naegi!” Junko similarly looked happy that Naegi was unharmed.

“You all right?” Leon asked with a nervous smile. The reason for that was obvious – they hadn’t all arrived yet.

“Did you come here because of what Monokuma said?” Sakura asked. The luckster looked around – it looked like Sayaka, Junko, Leon, Sakura, and Byakuya were the only ones present. That left seven people unaccounted for.

“Is it just you guys?” Naegi felt really uneasy. “Where are the others?”

“Either they’ve gone to verify what Monokuma said… or they got caught up in the **something** he mentioned…” Togami trailed off ominously.

“S-Something?!” The Luckster panicked.

“Perhaps… another murder has taken place…” Sakura grimaced. For Naegi personally, that was the worst-case scenario that sprang to mind, and he eliminated it as a possibility because he didn’t **want** to believe it… The baseball star flinched as he looked off to the side.

“If so, it’s probably because of last night… with… y’know…”

“No way! Over a stupid **memory**?!” Junko was floored.

Togami rolled his eyes.

“’Stupid’? I wouldn’t be so sure about that… There must have been someone who thought otherwise…”

“H-Huh?” Naegi blurted out.

“Do you have **any** idea how dangerous it is to assume everyone views the world through **your** eyes?” Togami callously pointed out.

“You could’ve said something about that, yesterday!” Junko gritted her teeth.

“Do you have the memory of a goldfish? This is **King of the Castle** , not ‘Everyone Shares the Castle.’ I gain **nothing** from going out of my way to throw you a lifesaver!”

Maizono hung her head as she reluctantly removed herself from Naegi.

“Are you still going on about that…?”

“He’s definitely messed up in the head if he **enjoys** this…” Leon scoffed. Sakura played peacekeeper in that moment.

“Rather than squabbling, we should be trying to figure out what it is Monokuma said happened…”

“Very well.” Togami obliged the Ultimate Fighter without so much as a complaint, walking off immediately.

“How about it, Maizono? Wanna pair up?” The luckster ran a hand through his hair. Sayaka offered him a small smile for his thoughtfulness, but shook her head.

“I, uh… I’ll go with Junko for now…” Her voice was subdued, but she somehow managed to crack a small smile. “I’m glad you’re okay, though… Naegi-kun…”

As both teenagers blushed lightly, Naegi couldn’t help feeling the same way. He’d been worried about her most of all, when Monokuma said something had happened.

The luckster did wonder why the idol would want to go with the fashionista specifically, but then he saw an envelope in her hand… And he understood.

“Eh, I’ll tag along with you, dude.” Leon patted his shoulder as Sayaka and Junko exited the cafeteria. Makoto shot the baseball star a dry, unamused stare – still a little sore over the redhead’s mean trick from a couple nights ago. But still, having no reason to really turn him down, Naegi agreed to partner up with Kuwata.

~*~

The search on the first floor didn’t reveal anything. Junko and Sayaka had gone knocking on all the dorm room doors to see if anyone would answer, but no one was in, or no one was answering, at least. Sakura was checking out the trash room, and no one was in the storage room. Or the sauna, for that matter.

Moving into the school zone, they did find Yamada searching the classrooms, but he didn’t know anything that they didn’t already. Ishimaru was in the entrance hall, also searching. There was no one to be found in the A/V room or the school store. Mondo and Chihiro were in the gymnasium; an odd pair in Naegi’s opinion, but they were getting along better than they usually did. As in, Mondo wasn’t acting as awkward around the programmer as he usually was, and Chihiro seemed genuinely at ease. Worried for their friends, but the programmer really seemed like she wanted to be around Mondo, not nervous at all that he might get mad or frustrated.

That still left Kirigiri, Celes, and Asahina to be found. Makoto and Leon moved on to the second floor, where Togami could be seen leisurely striding toward the library. Deciding they didn’t want to bump shoulders with the heir, they decided to check out the pool area.

“Hey, Makoto – check that out.” Leon pointed as they entered the first room. It was then that Naegi noticed the doors were unlocked. Both the boys’ and girls’ rooms.

In the next moment, the school’s PA system rang out.

“For **investigative** purposes, the doors have been unlocked. Please, explore to your hearts’ content~.” Monokuma chimed in before the screen abruptly went black again.

“I-Investigative purposes?!” Naegi’s whole body tensed. Leon rubbed the back of his neck and scowled deeply.

“Man… I got a bad feeling about this… Why don’t we each take a side? You find somethin’, just scream.”

Naegi nodded faintly as he moved toward the girls’ door. Even if they were just investigating, Naegi didn’t quite want the baseball star to incur the wrath of the girls later, if nothing happened to be in there. Naegi’s heartbeat quickened as he placed his palm on the reader, and the door swung open…

Nothing. Naegi breathed a sigh of relief. He paused briefly to listen for Leon, if he found anything, but nothing came. Naegi momentarily debated to go check on the baseball star – he didn’t like doubting the redhead, but **if** there was a crime scene, and Leon was tampering with it, it wouldn’t be good for any of them. Deciding he would give the redhead the benefit of a doubt, Naegi proceeded to the other door in the girls’ workout room. The door that led to the pool itself.

Naegi’s heart stopped when the door swung open this time. It was hard **not** for his eyes to pan over to the most jarring sight. A body floating in the water, with spears skewering her… There was no doubt. It was Aoi Asahina, and she was **dead**. Time stopped dead in its tracks for Naegi, and Leon had opened the door on the boys’ side not a moment after Naegi had stumbled across the scene. They both let out panicked screams without realizing. Though they didn’t notice her at first, Celes was standing near the doors, near them, gripping one arm tightly and grimacing at the sight of their former classmate.

It didn’t take long for the PA system to kick in again, and announce that a body had been discovered. There were three people there, after all.

“We got a corpse here~! Get to the pool asap! We’ll be holding a Class Trial pretty soon, so make good use of the time you’ve got!” Again, the screen flickered off as soon as the announcement was finished.

“What the hell…” Leon choked out as he stood there rigidly, before he clenched a fist and roared. “ **What the hell**?! Someone actually **caved**?! Was this bastard really so desperate to keep their damn history to themselves?!”

“It’s also possible they just wanted out…” Celes let out in a strained voice. Her face was showing more raw emotion than Naegi had seen in her yet. The luckster supposed that finding a corpse would catch anyone off-guard, but the fact she was showing something beyond amusement was somehow… comforting. It humanized her, in his eyes. “Whatever the reason, this is simply… barbaric…”

Leon rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his hair in aggravation.

“No shit. We need to get everyone in here **now**. I don’t wanna start pokin’ around, and then have the finger pointed at me just ‘cause I was the first to find the body…”

“You can hardly complain…” Celes hissed, and that was when it dawned on Naegi that, technically, **she** was the first to find the body. How long had she been standing here? Had **she** tampered with anything? Naegi didn’t like asking these questions, but they needed to ascertain the facts.

Before he could voice any of these questions aloud, however, Togami and Kirigiri arrived from the boys’ side of the locker rooms. They were followed by Oowada and Fujisaki from the girls’ side. And like opening a floodgate, the remaining students came pouring in – Yamada, Oogami, Ishimaru, Enoshima, and Maizono. Similar to how Naegi and Leon reacted, a good many of them panicked at the sight of Asahina. Sakura was the most furious out of all of them, having been the swimmer’s closest friend.

“Curses…! I could not protect her!” Sakura howled, bursting with indignant fury.

“Yet another soldier… has fallen victim…” Ishimaru sobbed.

Togami was the odd one out, as usual, as he stood there smug and condescending.

“And so, it begins again…”

“Wh-Whoa, whoa…” Mondo whispered. His hand then twitched as a vein throbbed on his forehead. “What the hell is this?! **Who fucking caved**?! Give me a name **now**!”

Apparently, Mondo was going to be eager to bash in the skull of the bastard who murdered Asahina. Though for some reason, Naegi got the vague sense there was more righteous anger behind the biker’s words than normal. The luckster had a feeling he would need to understand any changes in the biker that had happened overnight; it was as if he were back to his old self, compared to how he reacted to receiving Monokuma’s second incentive.

“A dream… ‘tis a dream! ‘Tis all but a dream!” Yamada nervously chewed his fingernails. “Aye, I have yet to break free from the womb! I have no recollection of my birth… GGGGGAH!”

“How obnoxious…” Celes huffed. Junko scowled fiercely.

“Are we just gonna ignore the fact someone murdered **Asahina** of all people? Don’t get me wrong, Fukawa didn’t deserve to get murdered either, but with her I can see why Hagakure ‘chose’ her! Asahina, though? The hell?”

Togami crossed his arms and scoffed.

“She was a gullible fool. I duly warned her to drop that naïve mindset, that everyone was her ‘friend’, and look where that got her. You all need to grow up and accept reality.” The blond sneered. “Out of all of us, Naegi most of all needs to come to grip with this. If he doesn’t, he’ll be our next victim…”

Just as no one had been expecting such a heartless comment from Togami, no one saw Sayaka springing toward the heir like a bullet and slapping the hell out of him. Togami massaged his cheek as the idol glared at him with hot tears spilling from her eyes. His glasses were knocked loose, but had not completely fallen off his head.

“Don’t **ever** say that again…!” Sayaka screamed. Togami glared back at her, his hands moving to adjust his glasses; but before he could utter a word of spite in response, Naegi gently took Maizono’s hand in his own while rubbing her back with his free hand.

“H-Hey, hey… C’mon, Maizono… Don’t let him get to you. I’m not gonna die on you guys.”

The singer hiccupped and sobbed before whirling around and burying her face in the crook of his neck. Togami looked as if he wanted to belittle Naegi’s promise, but he didn’t say a word more as he sharply turned his head away and clicked his teeth. Celes placed her hands on her hips.

“Togami’s distasteful comment about Naegi aside, he brings up an interesting point. Thus far, there has been a single murder per incident. However, what is to stop that same killer, or mayhap even a different one, from killing someone else if they can get away with it while we are investigating?”

Monokuma took that moment to suddenly appear, catching many of them off-guard.

“Ohoho! Do not fear! For our academic coliseum, a single **villain** is allowed to kill a maximum of two people!”

Yamada cocked his head.

“Eh? Was that in the school rules?”

“As of right now, it sure is~!” Monokuma nodded smugly. “If one person went around killing a bunch of people, you guys wouldn’t get to enjoy life here very long.”

As the rules were updated on their ElectroIDs, Sakura spoke up next.

“If that is true… Then why not set the limit to one?”

“’Cause as far as mysteries go, ‘serial killer on the loose in the academy’ has a nice ring to it.” The bear giggled. “Yohohoho! One murder does not a serial killing make!”

“Enough!” Togami barked. “You came here to give us something, did you not?”

Monokuma rubbed the back of his head and blushed.

“Yes, indeed~! Here’s the Monokuma File 2 to help you with your investigation! See you all at the trial! Good luuuck!” After distributing the latest file, the bear left as quickly as he had appeared.

“… Fuck!” Mondo spoke the sentiment that was on practically everyone’s mind. None of them wanted to go through with this again, least of all Fujisaki, who was crying her heart out.

“Before we decide what to do next, we should at least read the Monokuma File.” Kirigiri calmly addressed them all.

Grudgingly or not, they all accepted that was a sensible first step to take. They couldn’t go around making assumptions and waste time looking into things that had nothing to do with the case. Again, there were lives on the line. And since no one was confessing, they couldn’t rely on the killer to give themselves away.

_‘The victim was Aoi Asahina, the Ultimate Swimmer.’_ Naegi read to himself as he held the Monokuma File so that he and Maizono could read it, as she was still clinging to him. _‘Time of death was approximately 2:30 a.m. Three spears punctured her heart, ribs, and lungs. Trace elements of a drug were found to be ingested. Bloody froth is in her airway, and water in her stomach. Death was not instantaneous.’_

Naegi couldn’t help narrowing his eyes. That was all the information Monokuma was giving them? They didn’t even have a clearly defined cause of death. Assumptions could be made, but those could prove to be dangerous if they strayed too far from the path. Was it really the spears that killed her? Could it have been the drugs? Hell, could she have **drowned**? Asahina was the Ultimate Swimmer, but that didn’t discount the possibility. If somebody was strong enough to submerge her long enough…

No, Naegi didn’t want to think about that right now. Mondo and Sakura were the strongest people in their class, and he didn’t want to go suspecting anyone without solid evidence. Besides, Oogami was Asahina’s best friend in here. It was unthinkable that she’d kill the swimmer, even if it was over the secrets. Why did the killer target Asahina? That question bothered Naegi the most.

“Shit…” Mondo cursed as he clenched his fist tightly. “That fucking bastard is digging himself a damn grave…! Just give me a name, and that friggin’ bear won’t have to arrange an execution…”

“You can’t…!” Fujisaki exclaimed, tears pricking hat her eyes again. “If you do that, you’ll…!”

Even if he still seemed pretty pissed, Mondo calmed down enough to not fly into a rage. Togami crossed his arms and frowned thoughtfully.

“This ‘drug’ that was mentioned… I’m very curious how the killer came to obtain that. Did Monokuma supply them with that, along with the spears?”

Nearly everyone stared blankly as Byakuya pointed that out. That was very true. Just where **had** the spears come from? Even if Monokuma himself hadn’t committed the murder, it was very suspicious that the killer had somehow gotten their hands on them. Monokuma **had** to have aided and abetted in this murder in **some** way; there just hadn’t been any dangerous weapons lying around in plain sight. The kitchen knives would’ve been the most dangerous accessible thing under normal circumstances, but **spears**?

“While we don’t have the answer to that yet, I believe a search of the storeroom should be among our highest priorities.” Kirigiri mused as she ran a hand through her hair. “It’s doubtful the spears were there, but I would not be surprised if any sleeping drugs were found. Monokuma has shown that he is eager to give us the tools to commit murder, such as the toolkits and sewing kits in our rooms.”

“A fair point,” Celes concurred. “Most might assume they were for any troubled sleepers, but mix them with food and drink, and you could incapacitate anyone. The Monokuma File says Asahina ingested the drugs, but that does not necessarily mean ‘willingly’ ingested.”

Junko tilted her head.

“Kinda suspicious you brought that up… You sure **you** didn’t kill her?”

Naturally, the gambler was affronted by the mere suggestion.

“Oh, yes… I would commit a murder in such a way that would get my face and clothes wet. And I am certainly strong enough to wield a spear. Very nicely deduced.” Celes’s smile was pleasant, but there was a dark, ominous aura about her, **daring** Junko to insinuate that again.

“Maybe that’s not your style, but you **were** here when Naegs and I stumbled on the crime scene.” Leon pointed out with a frown and crossed arms.

“Scarce minutes before you!” Celes ground out. “Monokuma woke me, same as the rest of you, and I decided to search the upper levels first!”

Leon ran a hand through his hair exasperatedly.

“Without checking in with everyone at the cafeteria…”

“No, not everyone went to the cafeteria…” Naegi pointed out. “Only about half of us – or at least, by the time I woke up and got there…”

Sakura crossed her arms and frowned.

“In addition, it would make little sense to be the first to return to the scene of her own crime… She would have had no reason to, given that the murder was carried out at 2:30 – more than enough time to tamper with the scene.”

“Anyway…” Kirigiri casually ran her hand through her hair. “The storeroom, the locker rooms, and Asahina’s room will be points of interest. Before pointing any fingers, we should conduct a thorough investigation of those areas.”

“Why the locker rooms?” Byakuya asked curiously.

“They are the areas immediately adjacent to the pool - maybe the killer concealed some evidence there. We have no way to know until we look.” Kirigiri reasonably pointed out. Togami snorted airily.

“Fine. We will need someone competent to search the storeroom, so I will lead that investigation.”

Mondo cracked his knuckles and gnashed his teeth.

“Like **hell** you’re going to search that place alone…!”

Togami turned on the biker, bearing his teeth.

“Are you going to get in my way, plankton…?”

Before it could come to blows again, Ishimaru got between the heir and biker.

“Don’t worry, bro… I… will assist Togami…” The hall monitor was clearly lacking his usual energy. And he would not meet Mondo’s gaze.

“Bro… are you sure?” The biker looked stunned, for whatever reason. “If Togami snaps…”

Togami looked offended by the mere suggestion, but Ishimaru shook his head firmly.

“I… no one knows the storeroom better than me. I took stock of everything, when I investigated it the first time.” For a moment, the hall monitor regained his usual brand of energy. He pointed at Mondo with authority. “Besides, you need to look after the crime scene! You and Oogami performed splendidly, the last time!”

No one objected to that. They would still have enough people combing for clues, and the crime scene would be well-guarded. Mondo still had a complicated expression etched on his face, but he did not argue against it anymore.

Celes sighed.

“Then I will handle the investigation elsewhere... Somewhere that will take me far away from here…” She looked around the pool with distaste.

“Um, I’ll help!” Fujisaki volunteered. No one was really surprised; the programmer didn’t do too well, lingering at these crime scenes.

“Then I will handle Miss Asahina’s bedroom~!” Yamada stood tall and proud… until Junko popped his bubble.

“Yeeeah… no, ya creep. I’ll handle that room.”

No one volunteered to help Junko; the victim’s room seemed like a lower priority room to check, in the grand scheme of things. It was more for the sake of checking, than anything else.

“Guess me and tubs will check out the boys’ locker room.” Leon sighed. It’s not like they trusted him any more in the girls’ locker room. Pervert that he was.

“Hmph!”

“I… guess I’ll take the girls’ locker room…” Sayaka murmured as she looked off to the side. She’d detached herself from Naegi by this point, and the luckster was frankly still worried about her. After how stressful last night was for her, and now Asahina’s murder compounding that anxiety, it was going to be important to solve this mystery as soon as possible… It wasn’t going to be much better, watching someone else get executed… But the quicker they moved on from these secrets, the better.

_‘… Secrets, huh…?’_ Naegi frowned as he thought about the second incentive. Something about this motive bothered him, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He really hoped this nagging feeling disappeared after the trial was over…

~*~

After everyone had dispersed, Naegi, Kirigiri, Oowada, and Oogami had all checked the area around the pool before having Oogami bring Asahina out of it. Of curious note, there was a light trail of water leading to the locker on the far end. And when they inspected it, they found the inside to be damp, but no sign of blood. From this, Kirigiri deduced the body was stored in that locker for a period of time; the reasoning was unclear, but it was hypothesized that the killer was attempting to obfuscate the murder. This was substantiated by the Monokuma File, which did not give a clear cause of death.

They had no way to know if the killer cleaned up any blood left in the locker. It was still possible that the killer stabbed Asahina with a spear, removed it, stored her in the locker, and then removed her later to arrange the crime scene as they had found it. However, Kirigiri seemed more and more convinced of some theory she was forming in her head. What that theory was, was anyone’s guess.

As for the rest of the area around the pool, it seemed relatively dry. The body was discovered on the locker rooms’ side of the pool, but any water that Asahina dripped onto the floor as the killer carried her could have dried up, or the killer could have wrapped her in a towel and carried her. The method for transport and reason for obfuscation were still unclear, so they moved on to examining the body itself… or at least, Sakura and Kyoko did. Makoto took this opportunity to talk to Mondo.

“Fuck… how did this happen…?” Mondo’s hand twitched. Naegi winced sympathetically and stared at the ground.

“I know… Whose past was so dark that they killed someone over it?”

Mondo just shook his head with a pained grimace.

“Not that. Much as I hate it, I get they were fucking scared. They were a dumbass, but I **get it**.” The biker growled as he clenched his fist tightly. “I literally wanna know **how** this happened… Damnit, I was right here…! Next door!”

Naegi blinked in shock as he looked back up at Mondo.

“W-Wait…! You were here?!”

Mondo rubbed the back of his head as he looked down.

“Yeah… last night was shitty, all things considered. I couldn’t sleep, so I vented up here, lifting some weights. I ran into Fujisaki, too… We talked for a while, musta been around 3 when we got back downstairs… We didn’t see anyone else, and we had **no clue** anything was going on next door! **Shit**!” If there was a wall or something for him to punch, Mondo certainly would’ve done so. As it was, he just roared furiously and stomped the floor.

Makoto was just thankful Mondo didn’t use him as a punching bag.

“O-Okay, so… wait! This helps us a little!” The luckster let out a startled yelp. Mondo looked at him in confusion.

“How? I feel like we fucking **failed** Asahina…!”

Naegi shook his head.

“If you were talking to Fujisaki, and you guys weren’t at the pool, you must’ve been talking in that entrance to the locker rooms! Right?”

Mondo burst into sweat before nodding nervously.

“Y-Yeah… We were…”

“When would you say you ran into Fujisaki?” Naegi asked.

“M-Must’ve been around 2…” Mondo answered, unsure. Naegi failed to notice the nervous tics Mondo was showing.

“Okay, then if you guys didn’t notice anyone else, Asahina and her killer must’ve been in the pool before 2, and the killer only left after you guys did, around 3. It doesn’t tell us who did it yet, or why the killer waited until 2:30 to kill Asahina, but if we just look into what everybody was doing around that time…”

Calming down somewhat, Mondo rubbed the back of his head and frowned.

“Look, Naegi, while that’s admirable and all, I don’t think we’re going to find anyone like that. There’s that curfew thing we ‘agreed to’, and technically, Fujisaki and I broke it. So did Asahina and the bastard who killed her. But no one’s gonna own up to the fact they broke curfew… Let alone the spineless murderer…” The biker growled. Naegi shook his head.

“With our lives on the line, I’m pretty sure people will be honest about what they were doing – except for the killer, of course. But even they might slip up, y’know?” The luckster scratched his cheek sheepishly. “I mean… Maizono and I were up, talking about stuff, and we were up ‘til at least 1. We won’t hide that.”

Mondo sagged his shoulders somewhat.

“… Yeah, I guess this kind of shit gets people to be upfront… Or at least spit out any bullshit that makes sense, while still giving up the information they ‘know’. I don’t trust Togami one bit.”

“You were pretty concerned about Ishimaru when he volunteered to investigate with him…” Naegi noted.

Mondo winced and heaved a sigh.

“Look, Naegi, I’m not gonna lie. I said some things to my brozum last night that I’m not proud of. He was just tryin’ to comfort me and shit, and I… I got pissed and blew him off. I wasn’t in the mood, but he was makin’ a damn effort for me anyway. How the hell can I make it up to him? I don’t wanna have all that bonding we did be for nothin’.”

_‘You had a contest for one night, and you were buddies the next morning…’_ Naegi deadpanned in his head while sweatdropping. Out loud, he said, “Just apologize, I guess… I mean, Ishimaru’s not the type to hold grudges, far as I know. He was sad his idea to share all our secrets was refused, but he wasn’t bitter.”

“Maybe, but he wouldn’t even talk to me this morning!” Mondo sighed, cracking his neck. “I guess I’m just frustrated… I know I gotta control my temper, and I fucked up last night. Nearly fucked up twice…”

“Twice?” Naegi cocked his head. Mondo got nervous again.

“It was… It just had somethin’ to do with Fujisaki, alright? I promised the kid I wouldn’t say anything, and a man keeps his word. But… I still feel terrible. If the kid wasn’t so insistent that we forget about it and move on, I’d still be pretty fucking depressed right now. Just… y’know… Not because of the damn incentives.”

Naegi rubbed his chin thoughtfully. So it was Fujisaki that helped Oowada back to his old self. Not a surprise, considering how the two were searching together this morning, but still. He’d have to ask the programmer her side of the story later, if she was willing to divulge it.

~*~

“So whose secret did you get, Kuwata?” Makoto found himself asking, after checking in on the baseball star and the otaku in the men’s changing room. As the luckster could see for himself, nothing had changed that he could see, and there apparently wasn’t anything stashed away in there.

That left asking the boys about the secrets that Monokuma had given them, Something Makoto regretted not asking Mondo, Sakura, and Kyoko about, but he would trust them to cover their bases. Investigations didn’t seem to have long durations, so he unfortunately couldn’t investigate everything, not as much as he would like to.

Leon ran a hand through his hair in annoyance, jabbing his thumb at Yamada.

“I got the dirt on tubby, but I **really** don’t think he’d kill anyone over that…” The redhead shuddered just thinking about it. Yamada humphed and placed his hands on his hips.

“Mock and belittle me all you want, but if I am not a likely suspect, does that not narrow down the list?!” He pointed at the baseball star accusingly.

Leon deadpanned at him in response.

“Killer or not, there are just some things man is not meant to know, fatty!” He grumbled sourly, and then turned a suspicious eye on Yamada. “So, what about you? I saw you clutchin’ Monokuma’s incentive pretty damn tightly when ya left the gym! Which chick did ya get the dirt on?”

Yamada sagged at being seen through so thoroughly.

“… I really wish you had more faith in me than that, Mr. Leon Kuwata… But, I confess, Monokuma bestowed Ms. Celestia Ludenberg’s secret! I merely wish it had been juicier…”

Makoto sweatdropped at the comment, while Leon grunted in annoyance.

“Tch. So, it’s not somethin’ she’d kill over either? What, did Monokuma give us twelve duds and a hitjob? You’d think the bear would at least make **some** people seem suspicious!”

“Well, I think it makes sense that there’s some duds…” Makoto reasoned. “I mean, think about it. Monokuma’s motives so far might seem widespread, but they apparently affect some people more deeply than others! Monokuma targets our weaknesses.”

“’Tis true!” Yamada concurred. “Mr. Yasuhiro Hagakure and Ms. Touko Fukawa certainly fell for Monokuma’s first incentive!”

Leon shrugged neutrally.

“Yeah, I guess… Even Naegs and Maizono freaked out over that first incentive… Who knows who flipped out, this time?”

Makoto clutched at his heart as he was forced to remember that video… But then he shook his head firmly to keep himself rooted in the present.

“… Well, I don’t like it, but if we want to find out who murdered Asahina, we have to keep investigating! We can’t let her killer get away with it!”

Leon crossed his arms and squinted at the luckster.

“Hey, hey, hold up… Whose secret did you get? S’not fair that tubs and I shared, but not you!”

Makoto blinked before looking down guiltily.

“I… I got Maizono’s… But I know she didn’t kill Asahina! We were up pretty late, last night! And… I just **know** she wouldn’t do it…!” He shook his head fiercely and squeezed his eyes shut tight.

Despite not offering up much evidence for it, Leon and Hifumi seemed to believe him. The luckster had been dependable in the first trial, and moreover, he’d grown closer with Sayaka more than anyone else… much to Leon’s envy.

~*~

“A towel…?” Makoto muttered as Sayaka showed him what she’d found so far, stuffed in one of the girls’ lockers. It was pink, and positively coated in dried blood.

“Yeah...” Sayaka nodded absently. “I guess the killer cleaned up the blood after stabbing Asahina with those… spears…”

Makoto frowned in concern as the idol hugged herself, clearly unsettled at the memory of the state of their friend’s body. He didn’t like thinking about all of this, either, but for everyone’s sake… the luckster knew he had to inspect everything that he could.

“It’s damp.” He noted as he picked up the towel and felt the bloodied cloth.

“Does it mean something?” Sayaka asked, still clutching her elbows and trying to will her stomach’s contents to stay down.

Makoto rubbed his chin as he reflected on it.

“Well… it would mean the killer did more than wipe up blood.” The brunet reasoned. “I think Kirigiri-san’s theory about Asahina’s death by drowning is looking more and more likely… It’d fit with the Monokuma File’s description that death was not instantaneous. I mean, if the spears were the murder weapon, you’d want to make sure they dealt an instant death… Otherwise, Asahina would wake up, and someone could have heard her scream. Oowada-kun says he and Fujisaki never heard anything, though!”

After reflecting on it herself, Sayaka nodded slowly in agreement.

“You’re right…” The idol’s brow began to furrow, however. “… But… Isn’t that weird?”

“What’s weird?” Makoto blinked as stared at the bluenette, perplexed.

“Well… How can Oowada-kun be so certain?” Sayaka elaborated. “I’m assuming they were at the entrance to the locker rooms, right?”

Even though Naegi hadn’t said as such yet, she could reasonably infer it, since Oowada and Fujisaki were different genders.

“Y-Yeah… That’s where they were. But how’s that a problem?” Makoto tilted his head lightly.

“There’s two doors between that entrance and the pool,” The idol explained. “If they were both closed, I think it’d be pretty hard to hear a scream, unless they knew what to listen for. Plus, with the way a towel was used to wipe up the blood, we can’t say for sure where Hina was stabbed… I guess I’m saying, it’s at least possible for the death to have been by stabbing. We just don’t know anything for sure yet.”

Makoto rubbed his chin again in thought.

“Still… I think the fact that the towel’s this damp, it was used here around the pool. Plus, it’d attract way too much attention to drag around a skewered corpse out there in the hall, or even up the stairs. That’d leave way too much of a trail behind.”

Sayaka hummed thoughtfully.

“What if… Hina came up here for a swim, and the killer cornered her here? That might explain the towel’s wetness.”

Makoto nodded absently.

“True… Though, we still have to fit the drugs in, somewhere. Maybe that’s how they could kill her without much noise? Like, she was too close to blacking out? … Maybe the cause of death **is** still up in the air…”

Sayaka gave a small smile of apology.

“I think that’s the killer’s agenda, here. If we can’t pinpoint the cause of death, that leaves too many suspects on the list. I mean, if drugs were involved, even Fujisaki could have drowned Hina in the pool… But I think only someone like Oogami-chan and Oowada-kun could skewer Hina on those spears… We need more clues, that’s what I think.”

Makoto nodded amicably in response.

“You’re right! I think the best place to start checking is alibis and Monokuma’s incentives… In the end, I think those incentives are what it’s all going to boil down to, anyway.”

“The incentives…” Sayaka whispered as a disturbed look entered her eyes. She recovered when she felt Makoto squeeze her shoulder reassuringly, and she smiled guiltily at him.

She really had been worried over nothing, when it came to Naegi’s reaction. He’d been horrified, of course, but he never once blamed her for what had happened. He stayed true to his word and supported her wholeheartedly as her friend. He said that even though he hadn’t experienced the life of an idol for himself, he knew just from interacting with her how important it was to ‘keep swimming’… He blamed the managers and the industry for placing such a burden on young girls, blamed them for that girl’s death, even though Sayaka could only see how she contributed to it.

… It pained Sayaka to see the mirror image of that girl in Asahina. Innocent. Bubbly. Spirited. Had huge hopes and dreams.

Sayaka honestly didn’t think she would ever be able to forgive Asahina’s murderer.

~*~

Maizono and Naegi decided to head downstairs and check out the other areas; though they decided to split up for now and cover more ground, wanting to talk to as many people as possible. When he was passing by the entrance hall, the luckster was accosted by the ever-annoying Monokuma.

“Hey, hey! Naegi! You seen some ElectroIDs lyin’ around?” The bear tilted his head curiously.

The luckster stared at the monochrome bear strangely.

“No? Why? Did someone lose theirs?”

Monokuma rubbed the back of his head and blushed.

“It’s not that~… You guys know the penalty for losing your ElectroIDs! I’m talking about Hagakure and Fukawa’s IDs. I left ‘em lying out in the open in the entrance hall, ‘cause I trusted you guys! And this is the thanks I get…” Monokuma hung his head and held his arms behind his back. “Wawawaaa… I’m so depressed! Stealing the IDs like that is sooo barbaric! Like bashing someone’s head in with a sledgehammer, and then carrying that same bloody sledgehammer everywhere you go with a neon sign strapped to your back! This is going to be such a boring trial… Boooringgg…”

Naegi recoiled in shock before narrowing his eyes at the bear.

“W-Wait just a second… The killer… stole those IDs? Wh-Why would they do that?”

Monokuma pressed his stubby arms together and began to sweat.

“Well, you didn’t hear this from me, ‘cause I so dooon’t have the mind of a killer~… But between you and me, I think they want to get **caught**! They’re playing the game and going through the motions, but they’re not trying everything they can to win it! And I just can’t tolerate such cowardly, despicable behavior~! They disrupted your peaceful society, so they should go all the way!” Monokuma turned his back to Naegi grumpily. “Try to ruin my fun, will they… Well, I’ll show them~!”

Naegi didn’t know what to say. Monokuma was deliberately throwing them a bone here, and as far as the luckster could tell, it didn’t benefit the mastermind in any way. What was his endgame here?

“Why tell me this?” Naegi asked.

The bear turned back around and tilted his head in confusion.

“Hmm?”

“Why tell me about the ElectroIDs?” Naegi rephrased his question. “I didn’t know about them, and I’m sure the others didn’t either, so… why say anything?”

Monokuma appeared bashful.

“Ah, well… **Some** of your pals had seen the IDs in the entrance hall, including our wishy-washy villain, but no one thought to look into them! Not that it would’ve made any difference, with the IDs bein’ stolen and all~!” Monokuma sighed dejectedly. “I’m just a bear of my word. I told that dumbass to make it a fun and interesting trial, or I’d reveal ‘that’! No respect. I get no respect.”

“Y-You… You **coerced** someone into killing?!” Naegi couldn’t believe the Puppetmaster was being nonchalant about revealing this!

Monokuma raised a clawed paw threateningly, red eye glinting.

“Grrr! No, no, no! I knew I should’ve waited until you were with Togami or someone who would **understand**! The killer **willingly** took Asahina’s life, but their cowardly reason for doing it made them want to make the trial ‘easy’ for everyone! I want a bloodthirsty wolf for a villain, not a sacrificial lamb! But what else do I expect from a bastard who thoughtlessly attacks their headmaster?! They’re lucky their life was spared… Hair’s breath away from gettin’ shishkebobbed, they were! Now I wish I **did** just execute their stupid punk ass!

That was when Naegi realized… the spears. That was how they got their hands on the spears. 

“Now I’m **reeeally** angry!” Monokuma grumbled. He turned his back on Naegi grumpily. “Hmph! I heard talking to you was supposed to make people feel better, but I guess that doesn’t extend to bears. Whatever… This interview’s over!”

Before Naegi could stop him, the monochrome bear took off.

“… The killer… **wants** to be caught…?” Naegi stood there for several long moments and rubbed his chin. He just couldn’t make sense of it all. The killer obviously tampered with the crime scene; made it really difficult to determine how Asahina died and how the crime was carried out. And yet, stealing the IDs would be a smoking gun because Monokuma ratted them out… After a while, the Luckster shook his head. “No use in thinking about it. I bet it’s all going to come back to those incentives anyway…”

With this in mind, Naegi ran off to find the others.

~*~

Time eventually ran out, and everyone was forced to head for the red doors again. Naegi… wasn’t exactly **happy**. They hadn’t found enough to make anyone a prime suspect, but there were clearly some suspicious people in their group.

Kuwata had Yamada’s secret, and Yamada had Celes’s secret. Both boys vouched the secrets weren’t anything to kill over.

Fujisaki, apparently, had Togami’s secret… As he promised, the heir had cornered and bullied the programmer into silence. As suspicious as that might be, it honestly just… fit Togami’s character. He was arrogant and condescending, but he wasn’t a fool – letting his secret get out would have been bad for him, as well as his family, possibly. He’d be a bigger idiot if he had committed the murder, though… Oowada-kun hadn’t been too happy to hear about Fujisaki’s treatment, and that already put Togami on his blacklist. Naegi got the sense Togami was hiding something else, but it wasn’t the murder; he didn’t know how he ‘knew’ that… It was just a gut feeling.

According to Fujisaki, Oowada had gotten his secret, and had actually called the programmer up to the locker rooms to talk. Naegi hadn’t heard that bit from Oowada, but Fujisaki confirmed the times that she and the biker were together, so their alibis checked out.

Celes received Asahina’s secret. Makoto wondered if it might have had something to do with the murder, but after the gambler had showed it to him, he had blushed and quickly agreed it was unrelated…

Makoto, Sayaka, and Junko all ended up with each other’s secrets. Makoto had to wonder exactly how Monokuma had dug up **that** particular secret… But he wasn’t exactly in a hurry to call out the sadistically aggravating bear, so he’d let that be.

Togami, Ishimaru, Kirigiri, Oogami, and Asahina were the only ones he didn’t know who had whose secrets. But based off who was left, only Kuwata’s secret, Ishimaru’s secret, Oogami’s secret, Oowada’s secret, and Kirigiri’s secret remained. What’s more, Togami refused to release the results of his and Ishimaru’s investigation into the storeroom until the trial, so Naegi didn’t know what they had discovered. Trying to pry it out of Ishimaru didn’t help – Togami had effectively silenced him, or so it seemed.

Naegi got the sense they were going in completely blind again. Just like the last trial, they got a vague sense of the “how” and the “when” – but the most important aspect, the “why” still eluded them. The luckster had a feeling that they were all going to emerge from this trial, completely changed. 

… Naegi just wished he knew if that change was going to be good or for bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That one ended up longer than expected... Though, there's a lot to get into, with thirteen people. XD 
> 
> I get the feeling I might have focused too much on Makoto and Sayaka here, but, that in itself works too, leaving a number of deductions for the trial.
> 
> ... As well as leave some surprises for after the trial. Because you know Monokuma likes stirring up trouble~


	7. Chapter 2, Part 4: Boys' Life of Despair

_“Asahina… **Asahina**!!!” _

_The brunette stopped in her tracks as she was about to pass the threshold, leading into the waking nightmare outside. She whipped around to face her pursuer with puffy eyes and a snarling mouth._

_“ **What** , Oowada?! You gonna knock me out just ‘cause I don’t wanna abandon my baby brother?! Headmaster said we don’t have to stay here if we don’t agree to it!” Asahina spat bitterly, clenching her fist in both aggravation and determination._

_The biker’s fingers twitched angrily as he gritted his teeth right back at her._

_“You fucking idiot… You know I don’t hit **girls**!” He snarled back in frustration. “I’m stopping you ‘cause you’re going about this all wrong! You walk out that door, and Yuta’s a fucking **goner**!”_

_Asahina quivered in outrage, curling her other hand into a fist and dropping her initial fist to her side, bowing her head._

_“What the hell… do you know…?! If I stay here, he’s dead! At least out there, I have a chance at **finding him**!!”_

_“It’s that shitty mindset that’s gonna get him fucking **killed**!” Mondo bellowed, startling Asahina with how forceful his tone and voice was. Cautiously, she took a step back and looked up at him with wide, uncertain eyes._

_“H… Huh…? What do you mean…?”_

_Mondo growled as he tried to reel in his rage. At least the creaking in his head had stopped, since Asahina **finally** seemed to be listening…_

_“Listen.” He grunted sourly. “You walk out that door – sure, you might find out where he’s at. But without a fucking **plan** , or at least people to back you up, you’re not gonna get anywhere! The world’s gone to **shit**! You think you stand a chance against all those lunatics out there?! If you don’t end up dead yourself, you’ll only egg those psycho fucks on until they slit Yuta’s throat just to spite you! This ain’t the time to be running off, half-cocked!!!” _

_Anger drained from Asahina with each sentence the biker recited. As much as she hated to admit it, Oowada had a point… The world **had** gone nuts… Asahina wanted to believe that she could take her chances out there, but what if one of those rioters had gotten their hands on Yuta? She **would** be up a creek without Sakura or Kyoko to help her out… She didn’t know the first thing about negotiating with psychos, let alone fighting against them. And she had an ex-serial killer for a classmate! _

_… Or, well, at least her classmate was **trying** to go clean, since she’d found “true love”. _

_“Wh-What am I supposed to do…?” Asahina whispered, clasping her hands in front of herself and staring down at the floor. “I… I have to save him, Oowada! He’s my baby brother!”_

_Mondo let out a weary sigh as he rubbed the back of his neck, also looking down._

_“You don’t think the rest of us know how you feel? We all got special people who are out there, Asahina… Shit, the gang my bro and I started, they’re out in that madhouse!” He clenched a fist and raised it in anguish. “… But I can’t go running off like a damn brat again! Charging out there without a plan is gonna get everybody killed… Just like how it got Daiya killed!”_

_Asahina’s eyes softened as she looked at the biker with newfound sympathy._

_“Oowada…” She trailed off, uncertain what to say._

_“You’re right, I can’t make ya stay if you don’t agree to the Headmaster’s plan.” Mondo grunted, looking up at Asahina with determined eyes. “I won’t ask you to change your mind. I just… wanted you to know, I’ve been in your shoes. It doesn’t end well.”_

_Asahina began to tear up at the biker’s earnest words. Once upon a time, she thought of Oowada as just “another one of the guys,” someone she was incapable of understanding because his friendship with Ishimaru seemed so much more simple and knuckleheaded, compared to the bond she shared with Sakura. He was boorish. A brute. Let his anger control him. And despite his vow of never hitting girls, that never stopped him from being insensitive to their feelings on many occasions. Kuwata was shocked Oowada’s “game” with girls was so bad… Asahina seriously thought they’d be nothing more than reluctant classmates and friends._

_… She couldn’t have been more wrong about him._

~*~

The twelve of them took their places at the stands. The two spaces directly to the sides of Monokuma, where Hagakure and Asahina were standing, were now vacant. Like Fukawa, they were now “represented” by crossed-out head portraits.

“You all remember how the Class Trial works~!” Monokuma’s voice was light and carefree. “Your votes will determine the outcome! If the majority votes for the blackened, then only they will be punished~. But if the majority votes for anyone besides the culprit, then everyone else will be punished, and the blackened will go free! So, let’s get the ball rolling with… how Aoi Asahina died!”

Ignoring the monochrome bear’s enthusiasm, Naegi rubbed his chin.

_‘The cause of death… If we can just puzzle that out, I know we can begin to unravel Asahina’s murder!’_

“Asahina… had been impaled by three spears…” Sakura kicked off the debate. “Was she skewered to death?”

Junko crossed her arms and looked down.

“I dunno… Stabbing someone with a spear would make too much noise, wouldn’t it? I mean, Asahina would be screaming like hell!”

“I doubt the spears had to do with the murder itself,” Kirigiri declared. “Death was not instantaneous, and it would have been senseless and too risky to let her bleed out.”

“The Monokuma File said she ingested some kind of drug!” Ishimaru declared. “Perhaps it was a slow-acting, lethal poison?!”

Mondo shook his head.

“Except there wasn’t any poison lyin’ around!”

“ **You** should know that, since we took inventory of the storeroom.” Togami scoffed.

“If she was not killed by spears or by poison, perhaps she drowned…?” Celes proposed.

“Ah, but Miss Asahina was the Ultimate Swimmer! For her to drown would be unthinkable!” Yamada contradicted the gambler.

It was at that point Naegi made his rebuttal.

“You’ve got that wrong!” The Luckster declared calmly. “I know, it’s kind of crazy when you consider her talent. But we found a thin trail of water leading to the locker on the far end of the pool. That means the killer probably dragged something there, and I can’t think of anything else that might’ve gone into the water, other than the body!”

Kyoko hummed in agreement.

“Indeed… Something big was stored in that locker, at one point. For that object to be gone, and for the locker to still show traces of the object having been absolutely soaked… The killer likely hid the body in that locker.”

“Why would the killer hide Asahina after drowning her?” Junko wondered.

“Most likely to confuse us.” Togami mused, tapping his temple with his index finger. “If the spears had nothing to do with the act of murder itself, that opens up more possible suspects. Because you would **think** that the killer was a male, based on how we found her body. Yet if we consider the circumstances behind how she drowned, literally anyone could have killed her. Even Fujisaki.”

“ **Hey**! Don’t go accusin’ Fujisaki, you bastard!” Mondo roared as the programmer cried.

Sayaka bit her lower lip.

“… Can we still rule out the spears as the murder weapon, though? I mean… There was a blood-stained towel that Naegi-kun and I found, and… It was both wet and covered in blood. Couldn’t the killer have cleaned up the bloodstains on the floor and in the locker?”

“An interesting point…” Celes mused, hands on her hips.

Kyoko crossed her arms and stared at the idol calmly.

“That might seem plausible at first, but there are a couple of holes in that theory. The first is that if the body is hidden in the locker, where would the spears go? It’s hard to believe the killer would take the spears with them, and leaving them out in the open would invite suspicion on the pool area. That locker on the far end is the only one large enough to fit those spears, yet no amount of organization could fit those three spears **and** the body inside, much less after they had skewered Asahina. I had Oogami and Oowada help me confirm these facts.”

Sakura nodded slowly, arms also crossed.

“I confirm this to be true.”

Mondo rubbed the back of his neck and stared down at the floor with a scowl.

“Crime scene investigation’s always fucked up… Messing with the body to ‘test theories’…”

Celes ignored the biker’s frustrations.

“In your experiment, did you attempt to remove the spears from Asahina and **then** try to store her and the spears in the locker?”

Kyoko smiled mysteriously while tucking a strand of lilac hair behind her ear.

“We did… Though after inspecting the wounds after removing the spears, there was no need. Asahina was stabbed only **once** with each spear – if the killer had removed the spears to try and store the body in the locker, what we found in the pool wouldn’t have made sense.”

Togami narrowed his eyes suspiciously, raising a pointer finger to his temple again.

“I see… Even if you attempted to reinsert the spears into the original wounds, there’s no way you could stab someone the exact same way twice. Certainly not with something as large and unwieldy as spears… So those wounds **did** occur postmortem.”

“There’s also the matter of the Monokuma File.” Kyoko mused thoughtfully.

Makoto blinked owlishly.

“The… Monokuma File?”

“’ _Bloody froth is in her airway, and water in her stomach_.’” Kyoko recited the Monokuma File for everyone. “These details would not have been possible, unless Asahina drowned. If she was just thrown in the pool after death, I have no doubt Monokuma would have worded the file differently.”

Several people glanced over at the monochrome bear, who was rubbing the back of his head bashfully. There was a few moments of thoughtful silence.

“… But still!” Leon floundered a bit with his words. “I mean… Even with all that, for the Ultimate Swimmer to have **drowned** … That’d take someone pretty strong to hold her head under long enough to do it!”

Yamada chewed on his fingernails nervously.

“Mayhap Miss Sakura Oogami really **did** do it…! She has the strength of a hundred men!”

Sakura glared crossly at the otaku.

“I… **did not** murder Asahina! Nor would I dare desecrate her body!”

Yamada screamed and shivered in fright, but most people ignored him.

“I still maintain what I said earlier,” Togami remarked snidely. “The circumstances wouldn’t have given Asahina a choice in the matter.”

“The… circumstances?” Sayaka echoed quizzically.

“Togami means that Asahina, in all likelihood, ingested a drug that took time to take effect.” Kirigiri explained. She observed the heir shrewdly. “You found containers of that knockout drug in the storeroom, correct?”

“Correct.” Togami affirmed. “There were five small bottles, and one was opened and partially emptied. The instructions clearly state that it was to be ingested through the mouth, and that it would take ten minutes to take effect. It’s potent enough that the user would have no inkling they ingested it before it was too late.”

Fujisaki looked up tearfully toward the monochrome bear.

“Wh-Why would you give us something like that?!”

Monokuma rubbed the back of his head bashfully.

“Would you believe I knew some of you would have trouble sleeping~…? No?” The bear breathed out a sigh of relief. “Well, it wasn’t for something innocent like that. This is an academic coliseum, y’know~! You wouldn’t be able to level the playing field with people like Sakura Oogami and Kyoko Kirigiri unless you had **something** up your sleeve. You gotta kill to get a head!”

Everyone ignored his lame pun, making the bear mope.

“So what you’re saying is…” Mondo trailed off uncertainly. “After makin’ Asahina drink that knockout drug, the killer went with her up to the pool, and shoved her in?”

Celes giggled.

“I do not think the killer **directly** made her drink it. They most likely mixed it in with her choice of snack. To break curfew and go for a late-night swim… she must have been very stressed.”

“The ‘curfew’ is optional anyway,” The heir scoffed. “It’s not in the rules.”

“But we **agreed** to it, Mister Pampered Prince.” Junko rolled her eyes. Before Togami could shoot anything back, Naegi mused aloud.

“We were all stressed out about our secrets. I don’t find it surprising she went for a swim.” He rubbed his chin. “Um… Celes, where did you and Fujisaki investigate?”

“There weren’t many points of interest.” The gambler confessed, twirling a strand of black hair around her finger. “We checked the trash room, of course, in case the killer had ideas about disposing of evidence… But that did not pan out, so we wandered around for a while. We didn’t find much… though there **was** that one thing we found in the trash can in the school store, isn’t that right, Fujisaki?”

The programmer nodded eagerly.

“Oh, yes! A package of doughnuts! It was just the package, though. She must’ve eaten the doughnuts.”

Mondo cocked his head.

“Okay… sure, that makes sense. But what I don’t get is, if the killer drugged her, why’d it take her ten friggin’ minutes to get up to the pool, if that was where she was goin’?”

Leon crossed his arms.

“Maybe the killer stopped to talk to her? Stall for time?”

“Or perhaps she did some other exercises before the temptation of swimming became too great…” Togami shrugged uncaringly. “Whatever the case. once time was up, all the killer had to do was push her into the pool. The water would take care of the rest.”

“Those are the likely circumstances, at least…” Kirigiri agreed with a troubled expression.

“But where does this leave us?” Ishimaru asked with frustration. “Both locker rooms lead to the pool! Moreover, nighttime was in effect, so there would be few to no witnesses!”

“I agree there’d be ‘few witnesses,’” Naegi replied. “But Mondo and Fujisaki were up there!”

“Yeah…” Mondo conceded. “I was workin’ out, and I talked with Fujisaki for like an hour.”

“We didn’t hear anything, though!” Fujisaki quickly supplied as suspicious glances were directed at the biker. “We were together the whole time, and we were back in our rooms at 3… so…”

“So there is little chance you two did it…” Kirigiri reasoned. Her brow furrowed. “I would just like to confirm something, though… You were in the entrance **the whole time** , correct?”

Fujisaki worked her jaw to answer, but Mondo beat her to it.

“Y-Yeah… ‘Course we were! We guys can’t cross over into the girls’ locker room, and girls can’t get into the guys’! That damn Gatling gun prevented that!” The biker hastily pointed out. Kirigiri’s unwavering stare did not let up for a second, and Fujisaki was looking at Mondo with wide, disbelieving eyes.

“… Then that makes this case very troublesome.” Kirigiri did not mince words. “Because if you were talking in that room for an hour, and **no one** passed you by in that time, that would mean the killer and Asahina were in the pool area prior to 2am, and that there was a half hour before Asahina was murdered. No matter how you look at that, that is **very** odd.”

“No kidding…” Naegi trailed off. “Asahina would’ve been knocked out around 2, probably, and the killer just waited half an hour doing… what? Were they conflicted over it?”

Celes folded her hands beneath her chin, giving a saccharine smile.

“Ahh… May I say something? I was not aware that 2am would be relevant in this case… It was close to the time of the murder, yes, but it was still half an hour out.”

“Did you see something?” Sakura warily asked.

Celes shook her head, covering her mouth in amusement.

“It is more like I did **not** see someone that should have stopped by there. You see, I was in the storeroom between 1:00 and 2:00am. I saw Fujisaki grab a tracksuit, of course, but I did not see Asahina.”

“Why the hell were you in the storeroom?!” Mondo yelled. “Considering you made that friggin’ ‘curfew’, you’d think **you** would be the first to follow it and shit!”

“Perhaps.” Celes replied airily. “I was troubled and could not sleep. So I spent some time in the storeroom before going to bed.”

“That clearly makes you suspicious…” Togami told her point-blank. “Who’s to say that you weren’t waiting for Asahina there, and just headed up to the pool with her after seeing Fujisaki?”

“I… I can vouch for her…” Fujisaki feebly replied. “After getting the tracksuit, I went right up to the locker room… Celes was definitely in the storeroom right before 2…”

“Fujisaki…!” Mondo groaned out, much to everyone’s confusion.

Kirigiri’s grin turned a smidge triumphant as she looked around at everyone.

“I assume I do not need to point out that this generates a contradiction…? If we are to believe Celes and Fujisaki’s testimonies about the storeroom… then that leaves no feasible time for Asahina and her killer to have made their way up to the pool. Not without Mondo and Fujisaki seeing them, at any rate. That is, **if** they were in the entrance to the changing areas, as they claimed.”

Mondo twitched and gritted his teeth.

“I…! **No**! Of course we were there! That was the only place we **could** have met up…! I wasn’t in the damn library or anywhere else!”

“Mondo, it’s okay.” The programmer’s timid, small voice cut through the biker’s tirade. She looked around at everyone with quivering, ashamed, tear-filled eyes. “I… The truth is, I’m not a girl. I’m… a boy.”

“Ahh, that makes sense.” Yamada let out on impulse. But then Fujisaki’s confession fully registered in his brain, and the otaku let out a shocked scream. “Say **whaaat**?!”

Sakura, too, overreacted to the news. Everyone did, sans Kirigiri and Mondo.

“You… Fujisaki, is this true?!” The Ultimate Fighter was at a loss for words.

“Y-Yeah… I’m sorry for lying… I…” Fujisaki couldn’t continue immediately, as his tears were flowing freely, and his voice wavered. “Ever since I was little, I was always picked on for not being… boyish. They always told me I had to ‘man up’… but… I just didn’t want to be a man, if that meant hurting people…! It was easier to become a girl, and… and… I’m so sorry…!”

As the programmer became overwhelmed by sadness and regret, Monokuma laughed at all of their shocked faces.

“Yep, yep, yep! Chihiro Fujisaki is a **boy**! No matter how girly he dresses up, his ID will always register as **male**! So he could only get into the boys’ locker room~.” Monokuma rubbed the back of his head bashfully. “Ain’t that a real kick to the knee?! Worldview shattered~!”

Mondo growled lowly at the bear’s insensitivity.

“You bastard…! Show some damn respect!!! It took guts to admit that!”

“It did, it did~.” Monokuma teased. “But aren’t ya getting a little off-track, throwing a pity party for girl-turned-boy Fujisaki? … Or was it the other way around…? Eh, whatev~.”

“He… does have a point…” Kirigiri conceded with a sigh. She ran a hand through her hair and looked at the biker and programmer. “So I take it, you two were actually in the boys’ locker room the whole time? Not the entrance?”

Mondo gritted his teeth and clenched his fist.

“Yeah… Yeah, we were.”

“I’m so sorry…” Chihiro profusely apologized again. Sayaka shot him a sympathetic look.

“No need to apologize! Like Mondo said, it took courage to admit that!” She flashed the programmer a reassuring smile. Fujisaki smiled back shyly.

“Y-Yeah… That’s what we were talking about the whole time… our… secrets.”

Mondo sighed and rubbed the back of his head in shame.

“When Monokuma dished out those secrets, I ended up with Fujisaki’s. I couldn’t believe what was on that scrap of paper, so I… called the kid up to the locker room to see for myself if it was real or if Monokuma was just spouting shit. When the kid entered the locker room no problem, I… I just couldn’t blab about it to everybody. Even if I had to lie, I had to cover for the kid ‘til he was ready to open up to all of you. Hell, I still think he shouldn’t have been forced to do it, even now.” The biker glared moodily at the monochrome bear, who cackled.

Naegi appeared contemplative.

“Okay… This definitely changes the circumstances. With Fujisaki and Oowada in the locker room, they wouldn’t have known about anyone going to the pool, as long as they took the girls’ side. Asahina probably ate those doughnuts around 2:15 or 2:20, and then when she made her way up to the pool, she blacked out and the killer pushed her in.”

Leon nodded in agreement.

“Plus, with the girls’ side being the only open route to the pool, that means the killer was probably a girl. Otherwise, the killer would’ve gotten shot by the Gatling gun.”

Kirigiri, Maizono, Celes, Enoshima, and Oogami. Could it really be that simple, to narrow down the list of suspects that much? It seemed like they were going to hold another nonstop debate to find out.

“I would argue Celes is the most suspicious.” Togami spoke up first. “She was in the storeroom for vague, untrustworthy reasons, and for all she knew, Fujisaki was going up to the pool alone. Perfect setup to frame him.”

Celes put on a faux happy face.

“Hmhm… You certainly are quick to point the finger. But **I** had no idea Fujisaki was a boy, and so…why would I kill Asahina if I ‘knew’ Fujisaki would see me with her…?”

“A fair point.” Sakura agreed. “Even if she could have made us disregard Fujisaki’s testimony, that plan would have been entirely too risky.”

“Plus, if she wanted to, Celes could have just killed Fujisaki in the storeroom!” Leon grunted in annoyance. “The Dead Body Discovery announcement went off when she was with me and Naegi, anyway… Can killers even be considered ‘discoverers’ of a body?”

“Hmmm…” Monokuma hummed unconvincingly. Clearly, they did **not** count. Celes was officially scratched off the suspects list, as were Makoto and Leon.

“Well, maybe we’re looking at this the wrong way!” Mondo grumbled. “It’d take someone pretty strong to use those spears! Me and Oogami tried lifting those things, and they weren’t exactly **light** …”

“S-So… you are saying Oogami could have done it?” Ishimaru asked with a shaky, nervous smile as he eyed the fighter.

“I did **not** kill Asahina…” Sakura replied darkly.

“What about Enoshima, Kirigiri, and Maizono?” Ishimaru hastily supplied.

“Don’t look at me.” Junko rolled her eyes. “If I don’t get at least eight hours of beauty sleep, I wouldn’t look nearly as fabulous!”

“That’s **not** an alibi!” Mondo yelled.

“Maizono seemed pretty unsettled by someone learning her deep, dark secret…” Togami pointed out, crossing his arms. “She **could** have been desperate enough…”

Sayaka hugged herself and shivered, but in the end, it was Makoto who spoke up in defense of her.

“I was the one that received her secret!” Makoto placed a hand over his chest. “Since we were up pretty late talking about it, I can vouch for her alibi!”

“Naegi-kun…” Sayaka murmured softly. And though he didn’t look completely convinced, Togami decided to remain quiet and hear what others had to say.

“Kirigiri’s been awfully quiet…” Leon shook his head, trying to line out all the possibilities.

“But it is partly thanks to her efforts we know the route the killer used to avoid detection…” Sakura reasoned.

“For all we know, the killer **could** have been male.” Celes pointed out. “Oowada would have just had to knock out Fujisaki, and he could have moved about freely…”

“O-O-Oowada didn’t hit me…!” Fujisaki refuted her.

“Yeah! Don’t pick a fight, bitch! I wouldn’t have laid a hand on Asahina ‘cause she was a chick!” Mondo roared.

As Celes’s angry side reared its ugly head, Kirigiri frowned, raising her index finger to her lips as she muttered.

“Could the killer have been a male…? Is that absolutely ruled out…?”

And that was when it hit Naegi. The dead students’ IDs. Specifically…

“That’s right!” Naegi got everyone’s attention. “Fukawa’s ElectroID! If the killer used that, it wouldn’t have mattered if they were a guy!”

Monokuma patted his belly as he laughed at everyone’s confused faces.

“Yes, indeed! The scanners on the door scan the IDs, not **you**.”

Yamada’s brow furrowed.

“But… was Miss Fukawa’s ID available to use…?”

“Yes.” Togami frowned. “Her and Hagakure’s IDs were in a box out in the entrance hall. Anyone could have taken it.”

“Not ‘anyone’…” Kirigiri pointed out. “Very few people would have benefited from using it. None of the girls would have stolen it. Oowada and Fujisaki were already in the boys’ locker room. Kuwata and Naegi discovered the body with Celes… Out of everyone, you, Yamada, and Ishimaru would have ‘had’ to use it to access the pool through the girls’ locker room.”

“I-I-I didn’t even **know** about Miss Fukawa’s ID!” Yamada dramatically gasped.

“I… I admit I knew about the IDs…” Ishimaru trailed off, looking to the floor in anguish.

Mondo snarled as he glared at Togami.

“You **bastard**! If you even insinuate my bro was the murderer, I will end you so fast…!”

Togami scowled as many were glaring suspiciously at him now.

“What makes you think those IDs are even related to this case…? If we take everything into account so far – scratch Celes and Maizono off of the girls’ side of the suspects list – all you’ve done is raise our suspect list from three to six.”

“No… those IDs are definitely related.” Makoto rubbed his chin, brow furrowing. “Monokuma said so himself. He said the killer took them because they **wanted** to be found out…”

“That does not make much sense…” Celes frowned at Makoto. “Up until this point, we were under the belief that the killer was trying to make this murder more complicated… Why would they want to be discovered…?”

“Don’t go believing the bear’s word as gospel just because the girl suspects seem ‘unlikely.’” Togami coldly added. “If you’re wrong, and one of them is the killer, we will all die.”

Sayaka narrowed her eyes at the heir’s callousness towards Naegi again. Finding fault with his arguments was one thing, but Togami had been deliberately making cruel remarks to the luckster since the body was discovered… He had no right to say such things. And Naegi, being the kind and considerate guy he is, wasn’t lashing back at the heir. The luckster simply stared down at the floor at a loss for words.

“We do need something more concrete than Monokuma’s testimony…” Kirigiri agreed calmly. “I think now is precisely the time to turn our attention to those incentives. They **have** been weighing on my mind throughout this investigation…”

Sakura hummed lowly, deep in thought.

“Naegi wound up with Maizono’s secret… Oowada had Fujisaki’s secret… But what about everyone else? I, myself, had Kirigiri’s secret. I can vouch that it would not have led to murder, even though she is at least a suspect, like myself.”

Leon ran a hand through his hair agitatedly.

“I had fatso’s secret, and I **didn’t** need to know it, thanks!” He grumbled.

Yamada sagged pitifully.

“… I had Miss Celestia Ludenberg’s secret… And, well… um… I’m afraid I am not allowed to disclose its contents, on pain of death…”

Celes giggled at everyone’s various reactions to Yamada’s plight.

“Well… I will admit I had Asahina’s secret, and while it was potent blackmail material, it would not have compelled me to kill her.” The gambler confessed.

Mondo’s hand twitched as he glared daggers at Togami.

“Togami found out Fujisaki had his secret and made him clam up! I’m still gonna kick your ass for that, Togami!”

The heir scoffed, half-turning away from the livid biker.

“… I don’t care what you have to say, plankton.”

“On that note…” Kyoko raised an eyebrow at the heir. “Whose secret were you given, Togami?”

The heir stayed silent for several long moments before turning to the mysterious girl and crossing his arms and glowering at her.

“… I received Oogami’s. I can’t verify if it’s related or not to the murder, so pardon me if I don’t feel like spilling it here…”

Sakura was taken aback by this information.

“ **You** have my secret, Togami…?” The fighter asked. Makoto blinked at how… shocked Sakura sounded. Well, both shocked and some other emotion that Naegi couldn’t quite place…

Togami regarded the fighter with a narrowed gaze.

“… Yes. I do.” The heir confirmed for the last time.

Mondo growled impatiently.

“Look, forget about that bastard for now! What about the rest of you guys?!”

“I got Naegi’s secret~!” Junko grinned, shooting a peace sign and giving a Cheshire grin.

Sayaka narrowed her eyes at the fashionista.

“… I got Junko’s.” The idol muttered.

“I received Ishimaru’s secret…” Kyoko calmly revealed, having nothing to hide.

Ishimaru sagged, seeing he was the last one to speak up out of everyone.

“I… I got bro’s secret…” The prefect winced, and avoided eye contact with the biker, who looked like he wanted to say something, but in the end closed his mouth and looked around at everyone expectantly.

“So… I guess that just leaves Asahina. Whose secret did she end up with?”

Junko was the one to answer that, holding up an envelope.

“She got Kuwata’s!” The fashionista announced. “Found it while investigating her room!”

While most people processed this, Mondo cracked his knuckles at the baseball player.

“So… It was you, huh?!” The biker growled menacingly. Leon raised a fist in outrage.

“Oi, oi, oi! I found the body with Naegi and Miss Split Personality over here!”

Celes tilted her head and smiled pleasantly, exuding a dark aura around her.

“Excuse me… **Who** has a split personality, hmm…?”

Most people didn’t find themselves pitying the baseball star’s position at all. Kyoko ignored Celes and Leon’s antics, however, and stroked her chin thoughtfully.

“If we consider all of this… While it doesn’t rule out myself, Oogami, and Enoshima as suspects, these incentives at least cast suspicion away from us, since they are unrelated to Asahina…”

Togami snorted derisively.

“I don’t buy it. Perhaps you and Enoshima are less likely, but Oogami is still suspicious. She has the strength to wield those spears, has no alibi… and now she wound up getting the secret of the most mysterious person here. If we consider Monokuma gave her the spears as well, the bear clearly stacked the cards in favor of Oogami in this game, and I don’t buy it that she **didn’t** use these things to her advantage…”

“Togami…” Sakura clenched her fists, clearly opposed to whatever else he might have been implying.

As the tension began to rise, Makoto thought over all the information they’d gleaned just now. On the surface, it didn’t seem like they learned much – the current suspects sure didn’t seem to have anything directly related to Asahina in any way… Not with the incentives, at least. Enoshima had his secret. Kirigiri had Ishimaru’s. Oogami had Kirigiri’s. Yamada had Celes’s. Togami had Oogami’s. And Ishimaru had Oowada’s.

… The more he thought about it…

_‘… This murder wasn’t targeting Asahina specifically.’_ Makoto couldn’t help concluding. After all, the one who had the ‘most’ to gain from silencing Asahina for the secret she was given… Kuwata had discovered the body with him and Celes.

That begged the question, though… out of all the suspects, who stood out the most? Kirigiri had been too helpful in the investigation. Enoshima… she could have hid the fact Asahina had Kuwata’s secret, but she didn’t. Oogami might have had the opportunity and the ‘resources’ – at least if one assumed Monokuma gave the spears to her – but Asahina was her best friend here; there was no way Naegi could deny that. Not to mention, Oogami had guarded the crime scene with Oowada and helped Kirigiri with confirming the legitimacy of theories about how the crime was carried out. Even if that was all an act, Naegi couldn’t stop thinking about how torn up Oogami was about Asahina’s death… In his eyes, there was no way you could fake that. Every time she came under fire, Oogami denied the accusations, and it didn’t seem like her answer was going to change.

Makoto took a deep breath as he reviewed the male suspects. Yamada hadn’t offered much to the investigation or trial at all, but Naegi couldn’t help feeling it was because he was unrelated to the incident. Togami… had been his usual wary self, and he was now leaning heavily toward Oogami being the culprit… But Togami had overseen the storeroom investigation, and Ishimaru would have known if Togami had messed with anything in there, at least during the investigation…

Naegi froze.

_“I… no one knows the storeroom better than me. I took stock of everything, when I investigated it the first time.”_

“Ishimaru…” Makoto suddenly blurted out, gaining everyone’s attention.

“Ishimaru-kun?” Sayaka echoed in confusion.

“What about my bro?” Mondo growled.

“J-Just hear me out…!” Makoto held up his hands peacefully at the biker, who looked ready to hit him for even going down this line of query. “I… look. We know the killer had to be the one to drug Asahina! If she went swimming, it wouldn’t make sense for her to take a sleeping drug! But… as for who knew about those drugs…!”

Fujisaki frowned in confusion.

“B-But… the drugs were in the storeroom? Just anybody could’ve found them!”

“True…” Kyoko conceded. “But you’re forgetting something. In terms of people who we **know for a fact** knew about those drugs before the investigation, Ishimaru’s name is the only person that comes up. And what’s more… Ishimaru **is** on the extended suspect list, if we consider Fukawa’s ID.”

Makoto swallowed thickly and nodded nervously.

“We also know that someone stole Hagakure and Fukawa’s IDs. I checked for myself. Even if you doubt that was the killer’s work just because Monokuma said it was, it’s pretty weird that someone would take them when they offer no benefit except for getting into a room – like the locker rooms – that they normally wouldn’t have been able to.”

Togami tilted his head as he eyed Naegi shrewdly.

“I’ll admit, the IDs were still in the box yesterday. It **is** suspicious they went missing overnight.”

Naegi nodded again.

“If we assume the killer used both the sleeping drug and Fukawa’s ID, they would’ve had to know about both of them beforehand. And while it’s easy to say someone could be lying about not knowing of either one before this trial, I know for a fact there’s one person here who admitted to knowing about both.”

“Yamada said he did not know about the IDs…” Celes mused. “That leaves Togami and Ishimaru…”

“And Togami only knew about the sleeping drugs **after** investigating the storeroom.” Naegi added. With a heavy heart, he came to the end of the line of his reasoning… the accusation. “That’s why, it can only be… Ishimaru.”

Naturally, Mondo exploded at this point.

“What are you saying?! Bro never said anything about drugs!”

Kirigiri nodded.

“True. But during the investigation, he volunteered to go with Togami to the storeroom. Do you remember what he said?”

“That… he took stock of everything in the storeroom when it first opened up…” Fujisaki trailed off in shock.

“So it would’ve been impossible for him **not** to know about the drugs… Yeah, I get it.” Leon mused. “Still… Knowing about something and actually using that knowledge are two different things, right?”

“I… I…” Ishimaru’s hands were twitching, and his face had taken on a blue hue. Mondo, again, spoke up for him.

“You’re damn right, Leon! Knowing about those things doesn’t make him guilty…!”

Leon shook his head.

“Whoooaaa there. It might not make him ‘guilty’, but I’ll agree that it makes him the most suspicious one here.” The baseball star remarked. Mondo roared in clear disapproval. Celes looked off to the side.

“Still, I feel as though we need ‘more’ before we can vote… It does not seem airtight.”

“Hell no! Ishimaru had **no** reason to kill Asahina! The secret he got was **mine**!!” Mondo cracked his knuckles angrily. “You gonna say something stupid like he committed murder for me?! Bro is **not** a murder…!”

“Cease your useless yapping and **think**.” Togami growled. “The whole point is to lie and cheat your way to win this game! Of course he would give that impression!”

“ **Shut your damn mouth** , **Togami**!”

Naegi frowned as he went over everything they learned. It wasn’t a huge stretch to imagine Ishimaru was capable of all these things – seeing him during his contest with Mondo, the hall monitor was deceivingly well-toned under that uniform of his. But the motive for this murder… Ishimaru… **did** have Oowada’s secret… And Oowada even admitted that he’d argued with Ishimaru, that night. Naegi hadn’t been able to talk with Ishimaru to hear his side of the story about that argument.

… Reflecting on it… Monokuma had been vague about “that.” The thing he would reveal, if the killer didn’t keep the trial interesting. As the luckster’s gaze panned around the room, his eyes fell on Mondo, who was still swearing up a storm and defending the reticent hall monitor. Could it have been for Mondo? It would make sense if Ishimaru didn’t want Mondo’s secret getting out, and also that he would want Mondo to live.

… And yet… Murdering Asahina, just for that?

“Mondo… I think he did it for you. Not for himself.” With a weak voice, Naegi argued.

The biker snarled at Naegi.

“Why the hell would he go that far?! Bro…! Bro knew my secret, sure, but it meant jackshit to him!”

“He knew what it meant to you.” Kirigiri suddenly piped up, having overheard Oowada’s discussion with Naegi during the investigation. “When you blew him off, he knew just how scared you were. And if Monokuma agitated him more… used you as leverage… that would’ve been the breaking point.”

Naegi blinked in surprise at Kirigiri. She’d heard all that?

“I was not… **I’m not scared**!” Mondo declared fiercely.

“Then tell us what your incentive was.” Celes smiled innocently, hands folded beneath her chin. “Just what was your ‘deepest, darkest secret’?”

Even as he gritted his teeth and put on a strong front, Mondo visibly faltered. He tried to work his mouth, but his words seemed to get caught in his throat. That was when Ishimaru stood at attention, and the fear dropped from his face.

“Mondo… That’s enough. I can’t… do this anymore. I won’t run away.” The hall monitor looked at each of them in turn, without blinking. “I did it. I… killed Aoi Asahina…”

As he held up the ElectroIDs for Hagakure and Fukawa, they all knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was speaking the truth. Monokuma gave a drawn-out, depressed sigh.

“I guess it’s ballot time… Please vote for who you think the **blackened** is. Will you be right, or oh so wrong…?” Monokuma was drooping more and more by the second.

Under a minute later, the slot machine in the room proved they had guessed correctly. Overall, the atmosphere seemed hollow. Monokuma was depressed the trial was over, Naegi and several others were sad they condemned Ishimaru, Mondo was in a state of denial, and Ishimaru himself was overwhelmed with regret.

“You’re right again, kids…” Monokuma sighed before perking up slightly. “Well… ten of you were. Mondo and Fujisaki over here need to be more careful! Voting for the wrong culprit on purpose is reckless~!”

Fujisaki bowed his head apologetically.

“I… I’m sorry…! I just… I didn’t want to condemn him…!” The programmer sobbed. While Togami was obviously irked, Naegi’s heart went out to Fujisaki. This place truly did “break” them…

A solid reminder that they could not afford to give up hope on escaping from here.

“Do you even need to ask?!” Mondo roared and crackled his knuckles. “ **This is bullshit**! Ishimaru didn’t kill her…!”

“I’m afraid he did~…” Monokuma taunted the biker. He dramatically shivered in ‘fright’. “Ahhh! What a scary thing the past can be! It holds painful truths over our heads! … And the heads of our dear friends~. Upupupu~!”

Out of everyone that could’ve spoke next, it was the ever calm Kirigiri.

“Ishimaru… can you tell us everything?”

Ishimaru nodded rigidly.

“Yes… As you said, my… argument with Mondo made me painfully aware bro absolutely didn’t want his secret getting out… He was scared… We all were!” The hall monitor sighed morosely. “… I knew what it could mean for bro’s gang on the outside, if that secret got out… I… I couldn’t just stand back and do nothing!”

~*~

_“Oho~? Ishimaru-kun, so **you’ve** come to challenge me?” Monokuma taunted, his dark grinning half facing the hall monitor._

_Ishimaru trembled at what he was about to try to do – kitchen knife in one hand, Mondo’s crumpled envelope in his other hand that was balled into a fist._

_“Y-You…! I don’t know how you know about bro’s past! I don’t think I even **care** to know…! B-But…! If taking care of you will keep bro’s secret from getting out… then, I…!” Ishimaru trailed off, choked up with emotion._

_Monokuma said nothing at first, but then he sighed miserably._

_“What is **with** you kids?! I give ya videos to make you think about your families out there in the big, bad world, and it’s an ancient astronaut theorist that cracks, and he even does a crap job at that! **Now** I give ya shameful memories and secrets, and I get a moron coming at me with a butter knife! “ Monokuma huffed and turned away from Ishimaru, obviously not feeling very threatened. “Jeez! You guys are a bunch of sad sacks! I’d order that dumb gorilla to just take somebody out already, but I already put stuff in motion against her, so it ain’t gonna be fun when it’s her turn!”_

_Ishimaru froze._

_“O-Order…? Y-You…? Do you have one of us working for you?!” He pointed the knife toward Monokuma threateningly._

_Monokuma snorted derisively._

_“Who knows? Not me, I’m just middle management!” The bear giggled unconvincingly before turning back to Ishimaru. He patted his belly contently. “But wowzers, Ishimaru-kun! You sure got some balls under there, daring to defy your Headmaster! You remember the rules about that, **right**?”_

_Ishimaru trembled even more._

_“Y… You think I care?! You imprison us here! Threaten to kill us if we step out of line! And then you executed Hagakure-kun without telling him what happened to his mother! And **now** you threaten bro’s gang…! Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t just take you out right this second?!”_

_Monokuma stood rigidly straight, directly facing the hall monitor and setting him on edge._

_“… Were you dropped on your head as a baby? Or can any ol’ dumbass become the Ultimate Prefect?”_

_“D-Dumbass?!” Ishimaru cried in outrage._

_“Well, you’re no **Togami-kun** , that’s for sure!” Monokuma taunted the prefect. “It takes a natural-born genius to rise to the top! Oh… But I suppose you already know the difference between **geniuses** and **hard workers**! Such a smart chimpanzee!”_

_Tears pricked at Ishimaru’s eyes as his body shook in a white-hot rage._

_“Sh… Shut your mouth…!”_

_Monokuma scoffed, turning away, once more._

_“But I suppose you knew your **bro** was a dumbass just like you? So instead of solving his own murderous heart problem, you decide to pin everything on me! Naegi-kun might have that same problem, but you don’t see **him** whipping out a butter knife at me!”_

_“M-M-Murderous…?!” Ishimaru growled. “ **Bro is not a murderer** …!”_

_Monokuma shook his head from side to side._

_“Murdered his big bro, wouldn’t be much of a stretch to murder you, too, right? Even if he flips out and murders someone else, he’s still gonna leave you to die! That’s just the kinda person he is! ‘Cause no matter how much of a ‘bro’ you are… His **gang** will always be more important~…”_

_Ishimaru snarled in outrage, and finally rushed Monokuma. However, he failed to notice the spears that came shooting out of the floor when he did… He still wasn’t sure how, but something had yanked him back just enough so he wouldn’t get impaled on those spears. Looking behind him shortly after getting over his shock from seeing the spears, he didn’t see anyone… But he had been so certain somebody had yanked him out of harm’s way…_

_Ishimaru didn’t have time to contemplate that, however, because Monokuma was in his face once he turned back towards the bear._

~*~

As tears rolled down Ishimaru’s pain-stricken face, Mondo calmed down from his angered state.

“Ishimaru…”

“And then Monokuma rubbed more salt in the wound!” Ishimaru cried, clutching his chest. “My whole life, I struggled with making friends… But Mondo changed that for me! For the first time, I met someone who rivaled my fiery spirit! Someone who… could put up with me…! Monokuma said if I did nothing, Mondo would break from the pressure! I firmly denied it, of course! I believed in Mondo more than anyone! And I… lashed out when he just wouldn’t shut up… I nearly got killed.”

“You’re a lot more quick on your feet than Mister Unlucky Student, that’s for sure~.” Monokuma cooed.

Ishimaru squeezed his eyes shut painfully.

“After I was nearly skewered by spears… it hit me hard that this was all real. That as much as I believed in Mondo, Monokuma could get to him! And I… just didn’t want Mondo to die…” Ishimaru stared down at his hands in anguish. “I decided… that even if it took giving up my life, I would make sure Mondo’s secret didn’t have to get out! Monokuma said that if I could at least make the trial interesting, he wouldn’t say anything! He would let bro take that secret to the grave!”

Mondo was clenching a fist and crying now, too.

“Ishimaru…!”

“Why target Asahina?” Sakura demanded to know.

“Because… I knew she was still up…” Ishimaru cringed. “She was running around the halls, venting nervous energy, and that was when it came to me… that I could help bro **and** stop Asahina from suffering any longer… She… She didn’t deserve to be in here. None of us did, but Asahina shared a spirit of camaraderie that rivaled mine! It was selfish of me, and unfair to her, but I felt it was all I could do… I waited until Celes had left the storeroom, and then I… laid my trap… If it’s any consolation, Asahina died while she was asleep.”

Sakura, or anyone else for that matter, did not appear comforted by these words. Ishimaru, their self-declared leader, had given into Monokuma’s Despair, and they’d lost Asahina because of it. It was a tough, bitter pill to swallow.

“Y’know, it’s kind of really friggin’ hilarious! The irony~!” Monokuma broke their somber atmosphere. They all looked at the bear warily.

“Wh-What’s ironic…?” Junko questioned. Monokuma just laughed.

“Well, Ishimaru **did** make this trial snoresville, so I guess I can tell you~. Ya see, Mondo’s **deepest, darkest secret** is that he killed his older brother!” The bear sighed contentedly as he wiped an imaginary tear from his eye. “And now he’s gone and got another brother killed~. Ahhh, it must be so Despairing~!”

Ishimaru physically recoiled and pointed furiously at the monochrome bear.

“You… You said you wouldn’t tell…!”

“ _Only_ if you made the Class Trial interesting! Jeez, at least try to remember the conditions of our agreement!” The bear huffed. His dark, grinning half was facing the students as he held up an arm victoriously. “But all you did was disturb the harmony! And now you’ve gotta pay!”

“P-P-Pay…!? Already?!” Ishimaru didn’t seem ready. Mondo himself was ashen as he ignored the fact that Monokuma had revealed his secret so casually.

“ **No** …! I’m not gonna let you get away with this!” The biker snarled.

Monokuma ignored him.

“I’ve got a **special** execution planned for the Ultimate Prefect!”

“ **I told you to wait, you sonuvabitch!** ”

Ishimaru smiled regretfully at the biker.

“I’m sorry, bro… I never should’ve doubted you. Keep… Keep everyone banded together! You have to defeat Monokuma! You must!”

“ **I’m not letting you die**!” Mondo raged, but it was for naught.

“Let’s give it **eeeverything** we’ve got! It’s Punishment Time~!”

“ **WAIT!!!** ”Before Mondo could attack the bear, who plopped back down on his throne, Sakura caught him and held him back with little difficulty. He cried out in aguish as the monochrome bear hit the big red button.

On the 8-bit screen, Ishimaru was dragged off by Monokuma to face his Punishment…

In the next moment, Ishimaru was standing atop a tank as it rolled through the streets of a city, passing by civilian Monokuma bears, rejoicing at his rise to Prime Minister. Despite feeling downtrodden, and confused, Ishimaru waved at the crowds. Moments later, a Monokuma sniper was taking aim directly at his heart. When the bear fired the shot, Monokuma was steeling himself for the bullet to pierce him.

But it never did.

Because the tank opened up beneath him, and he fell in. The sound of buzz saws could be heard, as well as the sound of flesh being ripped and torn apart. The massive blood spray that occurred at the same time also confirmed the students’ morbid conclusions…

Ironically, the sniper’s bullet ricocheted off the tank and went straight back for him, making him explode impressively.

Yet no one’s attention was on that Monokuma. Their attention was drawn to the remains of Ishimaru, which were regurgitated from the tank in a putrid mess of blood, flesh, and bones.

That was all that was left of Kiyotaka Ishimaru. An ultimately quick and messy end…

“Boy, howdy~! I was aiming for **extreeeme** , and I **nailed** it!” Monokuma gushed. “That was even better than the last one! A sacrificial lamb for one slaughterhouse~! Bon appetit~! Bwahahaha!”

Everyone, barring Togami and Kirigiri, seemed appalled by Monokuma’s unquenchable bloodthirst. Sakura had let Mondo go when she felt him drop to his knees, but she was instantly on alert again as the biker let out an unrestrained, agonized howl.

“ **Shiiiiiiiit!** ”

No one tried to console him just yet. They knew he would need time to grieve, and that no amount of ‘understanding’ would get through to him. And despite having said more than enough, Monokuma twisted the knife in some more.

“Oh, Oowada~! It’s only natural to feel Despair! ‘Cause it was **your** fault Ishimaru murdered anyone at all!” The bear rubbed the back of his head bashfully. “Human beings are creatures who have no problem killing each other… over something as silly as the past! You won’t break off your lingering attachment to the outside world, nor do you have any idea what ‘strength’ is! **‘Hope’** my fuzzy black-and-white badonkadonk!”

Surprisingly, it wasn’t Mondo who screamed at the bear. Sakura beat him to it.

“You fiend… Say that again! **You** were the one to manipulate Ishimaru’s heart, not Oowada! **None** of this would be happening without your influence…!” The Ultimate Fighter raged.

Monokuma sighed tiredly.

“And here comes that despicable righteous justice rearing its head again… How many times do I gotta say it?” The bear cackled. “Life ain’t fair, toots! Stuff happens outside of our control all the time! Willingly or not, Kiyotaka Ishimaru **snapped** because he didn’t want Oowada’s dirty little secret getting out! Nor could he tolerate the thought of his friend dying~! A cold-blooded murderer can be selfless~. They can use whatever reasoning they want, but a **murder is a murder**! Ishimaru destroyed the order he worked so hard to maintain as the Ultimate Prefect, so he needed to be punished~! Don’t try to shift the blame onto **me** just to make yourselves feel better!”

“You’re wrong…!” The Luckster glared at the bear.

Monokuma cocked his head at Naegi.

“Oh? Oh? Hopelesslyoptimisticboysayswhat?”

“Even if he was manipulated by you… Ishimaru still defied you! Like you said, he went through the motions, but he **purposefully** made it so we could all live on! We’re not going to just forget or dishonor his sacrifice like that!”

Monokuma hung his head miserably.

“Oh, shut up, Unlucky Lad! No one asked you to bring that up. Hmph!”

At the end of Naegi’s tirade, Togami just sighed boredly.

“Oh, please. Ishimaru’s ‘defiance’ just wasted a perfectly good opportunity to make an entertaining murder… So underwhelming. Such a dissatisfying end to this round of the game…”

Monokuma instantly perked up at the heir’s attitude. Everyone else was furious he was still acting like that.

“You’re insane!” Junko growled. “Enough with the ‘game’ crap… Two more of our friends are **dead** …!”

“Well, naturally!” Togami spoke condescendingly. “This is a game of **life and death**!”

“You’re horrible!” Maizono yelled back. “How can you… not care…!”

Togami rolled his eyes.

“As one of the other accused, you would think that you would be **glad** the real murderer was dealt with!” The heir scoffed. He crossed his arms and glared at the idol disdainfully. “Trust **no one** in here. This is a **coliseum**. The only fate for the soft-hearted is die painfully and betrayed…”

“Badass!” Monokuma gushed. “So, can we expect you to spice the game up again, Mister Affluent Progeny? We’re gonna be moving into Act Three, y’know~! If I hadn’t made the execution so entertaining, we all woulda fallen asleep from boredom!”

Togami just scoffed in response.

“Don’t delude yourself… Once I have claimed the title of King, I’ll be coming after _you_ next…”

“Scaaary~!”

“I’d like to ask you something, Monokuma…” Kirigiri broke up their banter. As the bear tilted his head at her, she said, “You’ve made both ‘executions’ considerably elaborate ordeals. Why put so much effort into it?”

“Upupu…” The bear giggled maliciously. “You a fan? ‘Cause these punishments aren’t just for you guys… This Despair is not yours alone… These punishments, this Despair~! It’s for all mankind!”

“You sure enjoy blowing things out of proportion…” Kirigiri mused.

“No exaggeration!” Monokuma denied. “These punishments were designed to transform **every last drop of hope into despair**!”

“What do you mean by that?” Leon asked warily.

“Mean?” Monokuma cocked his head again. “Mean… Mean… Meanmeanmeanmeanmean… Oh, gimme a break! Your obsession with finding **meaning** in things is **meaningless**!”

The discussion devolved from there, as Togami continued to assert he would triumph over everything, and Mondo raged at Monokuma and Togami both. Despite this disheartening conclusion, Naegi still felt they could get through this. Everyone but Togami was rallying behind him, so he felt he could keep up that courage. Things would change from this point forward.

Naegi believed that with all his heart… and he couldn’t be more wrong, as he would discover in the coming days…

~*~

“My, my, I have to say… things are moving at a nice pace! A very nice pace indeed!” Monokuma preened, lounging in a chair in what appeared to be a security office with camera monitors on a back wall. The bear was sitting across from someone. “Sure, there was a hiccup or two… But once things get going, it’s like a rollercoaster: there's no stopping it. It’s moving so fast only their fear and despair can keep up~!”

‘Junko’ smiled fondly at the Mastermind’s enthusiasm.

“Yep… It’s all going according to plan, Junko!”

Monokuma turned his head and sighed scornfully at his mole.

“Excuse me, what did I say about letting names slip, you useless bitch in heat?” The bear sighed again, turning back to the monitors. “… Well, whatever. I don’t care about a failure like you when I’ve got bigger fish to fry! Like a certain Ogre harboring traitorous thoughts.”

Junko’s smile slipped and she frowned, deep in thought.

“… Do you want me to make sure she’s the next victim?”

Monokuma scoffed derisively.

“ **You** kill someone?! Don’t spout bullshit when you couldn’t even let our latest washout killer bite the bullet! If you hadn’t butted your pig snout into that, I coulda made something sensational out of it!”

Junko completely withered under the bear’s tirade and frustration.

“… I’m sorry… I thought-”

“ **Exactly**!” Monokuma raged. “You **thought**! Soldiers do not speak unless spoken to, and they **don’t think**! Just let Commander Monokuma steer us outta this shitstorm you helped create! Keep buddy-buddy with whoever you want, but don’t be shocked when they wind up on a slab in the morgue! In fact… praise me when it does! Because I will give you so much Despair, you’ll **drown** in it! **Drown** in it!!!”

An uncomfortable silence fell over the two – well, over Junko, anyway.

“H-Hey, J… Monokuma…” Junko corrected herself, after getting a ‘look’ from the aggravated bear. “You told Togami about Oogami’s secret, right? Are you just gonna let him do as he pleases?”

Monokuma waved his paw about airily.

“Welllll… I might give a little helpful nudge or two with future incentives, but yeah. Mister All-Powerful Scion’s gonna be my Wild Card in all this. He thinks I fed him a carrot when he’s really just another one of my many puppets!”

Junko nervously fidgeted.

“B-But… are you sure you wanna do something risky like that? Aren’t you basically throwing Oogami away by doing this?”

“There you go **thinking** again!!!” Monokuma raged, instantly shutting the fashionista up. He huffed when she shut up. “Who cares what happens to Oogami?! She was gonna be executed when she murdered someone anyway! This just makes it so she **knows** she’s in a pit of vipers she can’t trust. Her bestie’s pushing up daisies, and Mister All-Powerful Scion isn’t gonna just let her go around all secret-like as my ‘mole’. Sooner or later, **somebody’s** gonna make things interesting! I don’t care **who**! Who knows?! Maybe even Oowada-kun will crack after losing his loser bro!”

As the bear laughed to himself, Junko mustered a smile as best as she could manage. It was like Monokuma said, soldiers were supposed to be seen, not heard… And she probably had a point about thinking, as well… After all…

Being down there with the other Killing Game participants… Junko was really starting to wonder what she actually wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was honestly surprised the investigation chapter was vague enough that it gave off the impression of Sakura possibly being the killer... I mean, in the end, as a writer, I delight in giving my readers plot twists. I just hope the twist this time was believable enough. 
> 
> But yeah... as of this chapter, half the canon survivors are pushing up daisies. Isn't that fun~? ... But yeah, no. I know that there's some big fans out there for Asahina, and even Fukawa/Genocider. And it's a bummer they're gone in the present - that won't stop them from appearing in flashbacks, rest assured. I rather like the flashbacks, if I'm honest. 
> 
> Does this mean Kirigiri is next? Or Togami? Or even... Naegi? Well. I say, let's see how things play out. This is where I really start deviating from my original plots/writings for Another IF, so this should be fun. :3 11 survivors left so far~


	8. Chapter 3, Part 1: A Next Generation Legend! Stand Tall, Galactic Hero!

In his sleep, Mondo tossed and turned. His eyes clenched shut tight, and he gritted his teeth.

~*~

_“B… Bro…!”_

_Mondo stopped just as he laid a hand on the doorknob to his dorm room. He turned his head back to Ishimaru slightly, blinking slowly in surprise._

_“H-Huh…? Something the matter, bro?”_

_Breathlessly, Ishimaru leaned on his knees before standing up ramrod straight._

_“I… I just wanted to talk! I didn’t want to leave this until the morning meeting!”_

_Mondo’s brow furrowed._

_“Talk…?” He mumbled in confusion, and then saw Ishimaru clutching an envelope with his name on it. “… Shit. What’d the bear dig up on me?”_

_This whole ‘buddy system’ secret thing was stupid and weird… But he’d be an idiot if he didn’t at least listen to what dirt that damn bear got his paws on. Besides, he couldn’t have asked for a better ‘partner’ – he wasn’t sure how he’d have felt about any of the others learning about his past… Fuck Togami or Celes holding his past over his head; he was glad not to be saddled with them. Ishimaru wasn’t going to blackmail him, or belittle him, he knew that._

_Mondo knew he could trust Ishimaru._

_And still, Ishimaru seemed a little tense and nervous, fueling Mondo’s confusion…_

_“I…!” Ishimaru held a knuckle over his mouth and frowned deeply. “I’m not sure how I should word this…”_

_Mondo rolled his eyes at Ishimaru’s hesitation. As cool as he turned out to be, the hall monitor had shown he was one for formality and shit. Mondo didn’t care about any of that, though._

_“Just spit it out, Broseidon! I don’t give a shit.”_

_Ishimaru’s frown deepened further, if that was possible._

_“Well… I… I mean… I think…” Ishimaru took a deep breath before crossing his arms and shaking his head. “W-Well. It’s. It’s something completely ridiculous, that’s all! Something totally off-base! Mere conjecture and slander!”_

_Now Mondo was even more lost._

_“So… what? He just call me an idiot, or something?”_

_Ishimaru shook his head again, firmly._

_“It’s worse, Bro! I’d have left him off with a warning if it was just that, but this! This…!” Ishimaru clenched his free hand into a fist, quivering with a passionate anger. “This is too much! You’re in **high school**! Even if you are in a biker gang, you would **never** go this far! **Never**!”_

_At that moment, Mondo had a feeling… A horrible feeling churning in his gut. Instinctually, his free hand began curling into a fist._

_“… Oh yeah?” He growled lowly, unable to help himself. “So what’s too stupid to be true?”_

_He hadn’t meant to vent on his Bro. He really hadn’t. He was making assumptions, and even if he was right, that didn’t mean Ishimaru was belittling what he’d done…_

_But still… Something inside him began to creak._

_“It’s ludicrous! Preposterous!” Ishimaru snorted derisively, in spite of himself. He humphed. “Monokuma **says** that you killed your older brother, but that’s ridiculous! You’re many things, Browada! Impulsive, lacking in anger management, you swear far too much… But you are **not** a murderer! **That** I can guarantee!”_

_Mondo’s breaths became shallow and ragged as it finally came out. He knew Bro didn’t mean anything bad, anything hurtful. Not anything spiteful, no jeering tone…_

_Mondo knew all of this, and yet…_

_“What the hell… **do you** know?! Huh?!”_

_Ishimaru cautiously took a step back._

_“B… Bro?” The hall monitor questioned worriedly. But Mondo wasn’t listening by this point._

_” **Fuck you** …!” Mondo roared furiously, turning on Ishimaru and raising his fist. “ **You don’t know a thing about me**! You think you can just come over here and pretend that never happened?! Well, guess what?! **It happened**!”_

_Ishimaru physically recoiled, taking another step back as Mondo took a step forward._

_“B… Bro…!” The hall monitor choked out, unsure what to say, but feeling a compelling need to smooth things out with Mondo._

_“Murder doesn’t hafta be planned down to the last detail!” The biker continued his rant, still deaf to Ishimaru’s decaying morale. “ **I killed Daiya**! That’s something I can **never** undo! I don’t give a **shit** if it sounds stupid to you! Don’t care if it came from that damn bear! **You don’t know me**! For all you know, I’ll just do it again in here!”_

_Ishimaru stiffened again._

_“B- **Bro** …! I… I understand! I understand…! P-Please…!” He shook his head vigorously. _

_But Mondo didn’t let him continue._

_“You don’t understand **shit**!” He snarled. “You weren’t there! You could **never** understand!!! You don’t understand how I have to carry that sin with me to my fucking **grave** …! Nobody else can know! Not any of the punks here! Fuck the police, not even anyone in the gang can know! If that gets out, the Crazy Diamonds are **done**! The gang Daiya and I made together…! All of it will have been for nothing! **Nothing**!!!”_

_“N-No!” Ishimaru insisted, again shaking his head vigorously, crossing his arms determinedly. “I **do** understand! I promise, it won’t get out! I-I’ll make sure of it!”_

_Mondo growled gutturally._

_“Fat load of good making a promise like **that**. The shitty bear knows. God knows who else does…”_

_“I…! I’ll do something about it! I swear!!!” Ishimaru protested. Mondo just turned his back on the hall monitor, opening his door._

_“Don’t be a dumbass! You’re all talk with your shitty squeaky clean record! Just… leave me alone. Don’t talk to me again.”_

_“B-Bro…!” The hall monitor choked out._

_“ **Leave me alone or I’ll kill you, too**!”_

_The door slammed in Ishimaru’s face._

~*~

Mondo tossed and turned again, starting to mumble in his sleep now.

~*~

_“Y-You’re serious?!” Mondo gaped as Fujisaki entered the locker room. He hadn’t been sure **what** to expect, honestly… Yeah, the bear apparently knew about his most damning sin, but still… ‘Chihiro Fujisaki is a boy!’ seemed too much like a sick joke than an actual secret…_

_Fujisaki smiled meekly._

_“Y-Yeah… I’m sorry for lying…”_

_Mondo rubbed the back of his head, looking down at the floor awkwardly._

_“No, no… I-It’s alright… It’s my fault for dragging you up here like this. I thought…” He breathed in and out slowly. He then looked back at Fujisaki with a slight scowl. “… I just needed to work out some frustrations that didn’t have anything to do with you. So if anyone’s sorry, it’s **me**.”_

_Fujisaki’s brow furrowed._

_“F-Frustrations…? Did something happen?”_

_Mondo clicked his tongue at the inevitable question. Oh well. He made his bed, now he had to lie in it._

_“… I guess you could say that.” The biker sighed tiredly, sitting down on the bench near the lockers. His posture sagged. “This whole thing’s fucked up to begin with, and here I am getting all up in **your** business… Obviously, you didn’t want anyone to know! But I was still a dumbass and wanted to confirm if the secret was real or not… I didn’t have any fucking right to do that…”_

_Fujisaki nervously patted Mondo’s shoulder consolingly._

_“I… It’s alright…” The programmer mumbled._

_Mondo’s hand twitched as he looked up at Fujisaki, frustrated at himself._

_“ **No** , it’s **not** okay…!” Mondo insisted. “If somebody finds out, you’ll…”_

_The biker trailed off, but Fujisaki got the gist of it._

_“N-No… It’s okay… I-I want to change. I want to destroy the old me – the weak me who always retreats into a lie!” Unbeknownst to Fujisaki, Mondo stiffened at those words. Those words came at him like a knife. “I need to change – I’m weak… But you’re strong, Oowada! So I’m sure this is no big deal for you! No matter what Monokuma reveals about you.”_

_Mondo was looking down again. His voice came out low._

_“What, you want me to tell you, too?” He raised his twitching hand again and glared at the programmer. “Are you sayin’ if I’m really strong… then I should tell you my fuckin’ secret?”_

_“H-Huh…?” Fujisaki mumbled, truly at a loss._

_Mondo just kept glaring at the programmer. He was envious. Envious of Fujisaki’s strength – the courage he had to look his weakness in the eyes and try to overcome it._

_A strength Mondo didn’t have._

_“That sarcasm?” The biker spat back at him, bitterly. “I’m strong? You being fuckin’ sarcastic with me?”_

_Fujisaki shook his head nervously, hands clasped together._

_“I-I’m not being sarcastic with you! I mean it… You really are strong, Oowada…”_

_The creaking sound was back in his head again… making an unpleasant screeching sound…_

_“The fuck do you want… **me** to do? The fuck was I… supposed to do?” Mondo snarled. “You sayin’ I shoulda told the truth… and let it all go to **waste**?!”_

_Fujisaki began tearing up._

_“What’s… the matter?”_

_But Mondo wasn’t completely there, mentally. His earlier interaction with Ishimaru was still ringing in his ears._

_“Why’d… you tell me? You tryin’ to win me over?” Mondo demanded._

_Fujisaki shook his head again._

_“I – I just admire you, Oowada…! I admire… how strong you are…!”_

_Mondo scoffed. He didn’t know when he began standing again… didn’t know when that dumbbell had wound up in his hand… Or when his grip on the damn thing began to ache…_

_“Yeah, I’m strong… You got that right… I’m strong… I’m **strong** …!” Mondo bellowed loudly. “Stronger than you! **And stronger than my big bro was**!!!”_

_Mondo swung the dumbbell…_

~*~

Mondo snapped awake and sat up rigidly.

“ **NO** …!” He cried out, only realizing after that he was in his dorm room, and Fujisaki wasn’t in danger. He panted as the immediate panic leaked out of his system. He clutched his bedsheets firmly. “No… That’s right… I made sure the kid got back to his room, safe and sound… He’s fine… He’s **fine** …”

Mondo’s fists began to hurt again with how tightly they were balled. He then deflated and uncurled his hands looking down at them in disgust.

“… But I’m not… Fuck…” Tears sprang from Mondo’s eyes as he fell back down on his bed, exhaustedly. He could only look up at the ceiling in defeat.

He’d killed Daiya. That would never change.

He’d been a hair’s breath away from killing that kid, Fujisaki… And if he hadn’t reeled himself back in at the last second, if his Bro hadn’t flashed in his mind at that exact moment he swung the bell… Fujisaki would have been on the floor, dead.

And Ishimaru… God…

“It’s all my fault…” Mondo whispered hoarsely, having screamed and yelled for at least an hour straight, after the trial. He scowled deeply up at the ceiling. “This shitty, hair-trigger temper… This envy… It’s gonna keep killing people…”

Daiya died just because Mondo had to be a dumbass and “prove” himself as the second leader of the Crazy Diamonds…

Ishimaru died because Mondo had shut him out and said things he could never take back now. The hall monitor had been nothing but supportive, even going the extra mile and confronting that bastard, Monokuma… He’d been a dumbass for doing so, but Ishimaru was **his** dumbass. His Bro that he found in the deepest pits of Hell…

Ishimaru took preemptive action because he could see just how much this incentive affected Mondo… He knew, sooner or later, Monokuma would probably break him. And Mondo, being the dumbass **he** was, had almost proved Ishimaru right that very same night, ironically just one room away from his Bro…

Mondo tiredly rolled onto his side and punched his pillow.

“Such a dumbass…” He growled lowly at himself, despising his own weakness.

Fujisaki’s relieved face flashed in his mind. Mondo sighed tiredly and released his anger.

… The one bright spot in this whole shitshow. Fujisaki didn’t deserve to be nearly **killed** like that… And the programmer still put up with his ass, idolizing him. He said that it took impressive strength to reel in his anger like that, to come back from the edge of the abyss…

Mondo smiled crookedly. Bitterly. Sure… he supposed it was a **miracle** he’d pulled that off… Fujisaki still nearly died. And Bro **did** die… Asahina, too…

Mondo hated himself so damn much. That whole shitshow had been on him… And hardly anybody was hurling the blame at him, where it belonged. He supposed he was grateful that at least some of them realized it wasn’t Bro’s fault... Though that bastard Togami, and that bitch Celes, were still on his shitlist…

But still. Laying it all on the bear? Mondo **wished** he could just pin this all on him… But Bro wouldn’t have done any of that without receiving his incentive. If he hadn’t coldly blown Bro off… This was **all** on him, and he needed to make a decision now what he was gonna do about it…

Mondo sighed and flipped over to his other side.

… He’d have to decide on that tomorrow, because he just wasn’t in the right frame of mind, right then. But he did know one thing, at least…

That kid, Fujisaki. He was going to protect that kid at all costs. Mondo nearly killed the kid, so he was going to take responsibility.

It was about damn time that he took responsibility for **anything** that had gone wrong in his life…

~*~

The next morning, only ten people showed up to breakfast. Naegi, Maizono, Kuwata, Kirigiri, Oogami, Oowada, Fujisaki, Enoshima, Celes, and Yamada. As expected, the Ultimate Affluent Progeny was nowhere to be seen.

“I suppose our first order of business should be deciding a new leader…” Sakura solemnly spoke as they all sat down.

“I guess so…” Leon agreed. “Morale’s not lookin’ too good, huh?”

“Why not appoint Miss Celestia Ludenberg?” Yamada proposed. Celes merely giggled as she folded her bands beneath her chin.

“That is very sweet, but I could not possibly lead when my subjects do not listen to me. Such as with the curfew… and the ability to adapt…” Practically everyone sweatdropped with the first example. She’d broken her own curfew, after all.

“U-Um… Kuwata could do it?” Fujisaki suggested. “O-Or Mondo…”

Leon rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

“Bein’ the Ultimate Baseball Star, I guess I give off a ‘leader’ type of vibe, but I’m not really cut out for that…”

Mondo also shook his head.

“Sorry, kid… I’m still out of it. I wanna do that eventually, pick up where Bro left off. But… just not now.”

“I dunno…” Junko swung her legs back and forth lazily. “Oogami seemed okay-ish with it, kickstarting this meeting. Why not have her do it?”

“I… must politely decline.” Sakura said, frowning. She cited no reason for her refusal.

Celes giggled again.

“Here is a novel idea… Why not have Makoto take up the reins?”

Makoto blinked in shock as he gestured at himself.

“M-Me? I’m not on the same level as you guys… I don’t have any… leadership qualities…” The Luckster scratched his cheek sheepishly.

“Out of everyone here, Monokuma has yet to truly break you.” Kirigiri pointed out. “Moreover, you keep everyone united as best as you can. In an environment like this… we really do need undying optimism such as yours.”

“She’s right!” Sayaka beamed at the Luckster.

“No complaints here~!” Junko grinned and flashed a peace sign.

“Sounds good!” Leon consented as well. It quickly became obvious that that would be the trend. Even Mondo, who’d punched his lights out on the first day, agreed he could get behind that. If Togami had been present, he likely would have challenged Naegi’s qualifications, but he wasn’t there, so no one was opposed.

“At any rate… What should we do from here?” Yamada pressed on. “We can’t find an exit… and nobody’s coming to save us… Guh! Just saying so depresses me…”

“We just need to make friends and live here together peacefully.” The Ultimate Gambler suggested. “Forget about the outside world and embrace our new lives here. That is our one glimmer of hope right now.”

“I can’t imagine… living in this place forever…” Naegi shook his head.

“We have food and clothing in abundance, and no lack of conveniences… What is there to be dissatisfied about? I ask you, what more does the outside world have to offer?” There was something about how Celes looked as she asked those questions that got Naegi starting to think her mantra about ‘adapting’ was a lie… Quite frankly, the gambler looked miserable… though, this place tended to have that effect on them. And just as quickly as that depressed look had flashed across her face, it disappeared. “Competition, discrimination, sacrifice, violence… As society grows in size, so too does its sadism… On the contrary, we’re better off here…”

“’Heretical Angel * Super Squishy Princess’…!” Yamada abruptly blurted out, confusing Celes and everyone else.

“What was that?” The gambler snorted out in amusement.

“Drillshop Megu, The Bunny-Eared Amazoness, Catgirl Dogboy, Galactic King Justice Robo… And, and, and…” Yamada let out a shriek of frustration. “At any rate, there is no 2D in this place!!!”

“It is because you and everyone else cling to your desires that the Puppetmaster has so much control…” Celes tsk’ed.

“ **Anyway** …” Leon sighed as he didn’t like the routes that conversation was leading to. Yamada being an otaku, and Celes being… Celes. “Shouldn’t we be headin’ out soon? There’s gotta be new places open to us now.”

Mondo rubbed the back of his neck.

“Yeah… That’s how it went last time. Trial, then exploration.”

“Very well. After breakfast, we shall split up and begin the exploration. Is that agreeable, Celes?”

The gambler giggled pleasantly.

“I’m certain there are discoveries just waiting to be made that will further enrich our lives here…”

“Yeeeah…” Junko drawled. “Clues about the mastermind and ways of escape are still our highest priority…”

Naegi didn’t feel like much of a leader just sitting there, but he supposed everyone’s decisions were sensible… He still wanted to talk to Celes again at some point, try to understand her better. The others, too, of course… Heck, the closer they got as friends the less motive they would have to try and kill each other. That was a game plan that Naegi could get behind.

~*~

“So… the third floor of Hope’s Peak Academy opened up this time…” Naegi muttered as he reached the top of the stairs. There was one door immediately close to the stairs, but he didn’t peek into that room yet. Around a corner to the right of the stairs, there were a couple more classrooms, which Sakura and Mondo were looking into.

Deciding to leave the classrooms and windows to them, Naegi and Maizono went back to the room closest to the stairs. When they entered, they found Leon and Celes in what looked like a rec room.

“Yo, Naegi! Looks like they got a pool table! Darts, too!” The baseball star grinned.

“Billiards, darts… Othello and Shogi… They even have some magazines~…” Celes gestured to the rack. “We have no dearth of cures for boredom.”

And then, Monokuma had to rear his head…

“Dun dun-dun-dun dun duuun! I has some additional intelligence!” The bear proclaimed proudly. “While there’s fashion, motorcycle, martial arts, gaming, baseball, soccer, PC mags, and more… you won’t find anything dirty. I mean, this **is** a school. You’ll just have to live with a few risqué pinups!”

“When new issues of these magazines are published, will they be made available to us?” Celes asked curiously. Monokuma rubbed the back of his head bashfully.

“No can do~... Even if I wanted to, the magazines themselves…” The bear ‘caught’ himself, giggling. “Ack! Nevermiiind! That’s all the intel for now, buh-bye!”

“That was… weird.” Maizono mused as Monokuma made his hasty retreat. Leon rubbed the back of his head in aggravation.

“Always teasing out new info… Just when are we supposed to get some answers here?”

“Well... There’s nothing that can be done about it right now, I guess…” Naegi muttered.

“It’s a pity… It would quite enrich our lives if we were to receive new reading material from time to time.” Celes lamented.

After looking around the rec room a bit longer, Makoto and Sayaka parted ways with Celes and Leon. And as they navigated through the halls, both the Luckster and idol realized it was a sizeable floor. There was a ton of hallway space, lots of twists and turns. They found Kirigiri loitering in the halls, deep in thought.

The next room they found looked to be an art room – canvases, statues, chairs, and art tools littering the room, and a wall toward the back that was peppered with sketches that looked to be drawn by high schoolers. There were some lockers, too, but they were empty. Yamada was in this room,

“Well, well, well… what a fine establishment this is. My artsy sense is tingling!” Yamada proudly placed his hands on his hips. “Not only is there a bounty of painting supplies, there’s quite the selection of sculpting tools!”

“You’re into sculpting, Yamada?” Naegi asked curiously. The otaku fiddled with his glasses, grinning.

“Generally speaking, I partake not of the 3D world. But ah, figures are different – they’re practically 2D.”

_‘Not sure how he’s defining ‘practically’…’_ Makoto dryly thought to himself.

“I’m particularly fond of the works of Charanbo, Pumpkinhead, and Saburou Roppongi… ‘Mama Cat’ exemplifies Charanbo’s distinct style through his sublime rendering of the feline form. Pumpkinhead produces the highest-class faerie model prototypes of anyone this century… Saburou Roppongi, master of the posable figure, went overseas proselytizing about mech-girls… All of whom are perfectly suited to be named **the Elite Four of the Figure World**!”

Naegi and Maizono blinked.

“The Elite Four? But there’s only three…”

“’Elite Three’ simply sounds **foolish**! Furthermore, the reason one seat remains unclaimed… Precisely! ‘Tis for myself! Heh heh heh, and so begins… **The Legend of Hifumi Yamada: Conqueror of the Apocalypse** …”

“Mmm’kay… Good luck with that…” The Luckster sweatdropped. Maizono seemed to have a bad feeling about Yamada’s…. mood… and she tugged Naegi along toward the room in the back, which appeared to be a storage room. Various supplies were stored there, like a trolley and wooden hammers.

The thing that drew their attention, however, was not the tools, but a single picture lying on the floor. What was intriguing was the occupants of the picture. It looked to be some sort of festival, and there were a couple of booths depicted – booths that were run by Hagakure and Fukawa. The former was telling fortunes and laughing, while the other was doing a book signing and looking bashful about getting attention from fans.

“Wh-What is this…?” Maizono wondered aloud.

“Why the two of them?” Naegi also wondered. Question after question flooded their minds; the picture didn’t look like it was taken at the academy, and the two looked **happy**. It was all so bizarre…

“Give that back! It’s **mine**!” Monokuma suddenly appeared, swiping the photograph. He laughed at their dumbfounded expressions. “Uh-oh~! Didja see it? Them’s some nice smiles, huh? They’re enjoying the academy life… It’s like a page out of the book of youth~!”

“What do you know about that picture?” Naegi demanded.

“Not telling~!” Monokuma teased and abruptly left.

The Luckster and idol shared confused glances before they reluctantly left the storage and art rooms. They weren’t going to get answers by staying there; there was more of the third floor to explore, anyway. They eventually came across another gate, which appeared to lead to a fourth floor. And a few more turns in the hall led them to what was apparently a physics lab…

“Ya just missed him,” Junko said as the two got a look around the lab that appeared more like a research facility, “But the bear said this huge machine is an air purifier. It’s kinda the reason we’re able to breathe in here, with the academy sealed off as it is.”

Fujisaki looked a bit depressed.

“Yeah… But he was cruel about explaining it, saying it was a time machine at first…”

Junko just sighed exasperatedly.

“I can’t wait to get my hands on the jerk controlling that thing…”

Attached to the physics lab, there was another storage room that seemed to function as a prep room for the lab. But the main thing that captured everyone’s attention was the camera on a table in the physics lab; it had a bizarre anime character imprinted on it, and it was a bit dusty, but it looked like something Yamada would own.

~*~

Sometime later, they all met back up in the cafeteria to discuss their findings. As expected, Togami was missing from that meeting, too. Apparently, he’d grabbed some books from the library, and was reading in the changing room for the sauna.

“The third floor has a physics lab…” Fujisaki started them off.

“Yeah, it’s got an air purifier as its main attraction.” Junko remarked. “Supposedly provides all the clean air in the academy since we’re, y’know, sealed off.”

Mondo rubbed the back of his neck.

“Yeah… On that note, the metal plates covering the windows are screwed on just as tight on the third floor… Still no way out.”

“I’m sad to say, it hardly comes as a surprise at this point…” Sakura murmured.

Yamada tried to lift their spirits up.

“Well, there’s an art room now, at least! I can finally draw my anime characters!”

“Oh yeah… we did find a camera in the physics lab.” Maizono said as she held it up for everyone to see.

“A digital camera…” Kirigiri noted.

“Does it work?” Leon asked.

“Seems to.” Naegi replied.

Fujisaki hung his head sadly.

“Yeah, but the picture quality is low… There’s only room enough to save five photos, and there’s not even a self-timer. I’m sorry…”

“Jeez, there’s no need to apologize…” Mondo tried to cheer Fujisaki up. “It looks like a kids’ toy, anyway.”

“The design looks to be some sort of cartoon character,” Celes agreed.

Yamada was clearly affronted.

“ **Excuse me**?! That’s Princess Buuko from ‘Heretical Angel * Super Squishy Princess’!”

“Do you know what this is, Yamada?” Naegi scratched his cheek nervously.

“Do I know what it is!? This digital camera was awarded to the victor of the bingo tournament… held at the special event commemorating ‘Heretical Angel’s’ anime adaptation… It’s stupendously rare. I managed to convince the victor to bequeath it to me for a large sum… **Hey**! That’s **mine**!”

“What?!” Naegi, and everyone else, was flabbergasted.

“Wh-Where did you find it?!”

“L-Like Maizono said, it was in the physics lab…” The Luckster answered hesitantly.

“I brought it with me because it’s my treasure, but it vanished on the first day with my cell phone…” Yamada explained.

“Why would something like that be in the physics lab?” Celes wondered.

“And why…” Yamada demanded. “… is it so dirty? I feel like a stamp collector who’s come home and found his collection used on a bunch of love letters. Oh, whatever…”

“Whatever?” Maizono tilted her head curiously.

“It’s no longer **pure** … I have **no need** for it…”

“It sounded like you really cared about it, though…” Naegi pointed out. Celes smiled pleasantly.

“Then is it alright if I hold onto it? It could prove useful. And if anyone finds themselves in need of a digital camera, feel free to call upon me.”

“I can’t see a camera getting much use here…” Junko bluntly replied. Naegi shrugged neutrally.

“You’re probably right.”

Leon ran a hand through his hair casually.

“Well, the only other thing on the third floor was the rec room.”

“It will undoubtedly enrich our lives here quite considerably.” Celes remarked. “Ehehe… I would very much like to play a game of Othello with someone.”

“While it isn’t related to the third floor, it would appear the infirmary is now open.” Kirigiri reported.

“Is there any protein? Even supplements would suffice.” Sakura asked curiously. The mysterious girl shook her head.

“Only medicine and other medical supplies.”

“I see… that is quite unfortunate.”

“I guess that leaves me and Maizono…” Naegi mused. “We saw all the stuff you guys did, but I guess the unique thing we found was a photograph…”

“Yeah, that photo **was** weird… Monokuma ran off with it, though.” Sayaka mumbled.

“Weird like perverted?” Leon cocked his head.

“Not **that** kind of weird…” Naegi corrected him. “It was a photo of Hagakure and Fukawa. It looked like they were at some kind of festival, running some booths.”

“Those two?” Kirigiri asked.

“Yeah… the weird thing was they looked really… happy. I dunno, it seemed like they made it outside, somehow.”

“When could a photograph like that have been taken? With the two of them happy…” Yamada wondered.

“I never heard that they knew each other before the academy…” Celes mused.

Sayaka nodded.

“True… I mean, the booths weren’t side-by-side or anything, but they would’ve at least seen each other if they were at a festival like that. It’s weird how they seemed like they’d never even seen each other before.”

“Surely you were just seeing things.” Yamada asserted. “’Twas an illusion conjured by Monokuma’s Malignant Gaze…”

“But Maizono and I _both_ saw it!” Naegi objected. “It’s kind of hard for two people to have the exact same hallucination…”

“That’s true…” Leon conceded. “But think about it, dude. It couldn’t have been taken before they got here, and it definitely didn’t happen while they were here. And they shouldn’t have been able to escape somehow, ‘cause… well… We saw ‘em, y’know? They’re definitely dead.”

“M-Maybe it was photoshopped…” Fujisaki proposed.

“I can’t see it being anything other than a fabrication…” Celes confessed, agreeing with the programmer.

“Just forget about Monokuma’s stupid pranks.” Mondo spoke frankly. “We ain’t got time to be scratchin’ our heads over that crap.”

“Yeah… We should focus on getting out of here, and getting ready for Monokuma’s next motive… That guy just won’t quit.” Junko agreed.

Fresh out of leads, the group settled into an uncertain silence. While there were new accessible areas, the fact remained none of them would help in the long run. A rec room, an art room, and a physics lab. All were interesting, but not practical for their circumstances.

Fujisaki particularly looked contemplative, before he piped up with a peculiar request.

“Hey, um… Would you all mind joining me in the changing room?” Not bothering to elaborate, the programmer stood up and shuffled off nervously. Too curious not to follow, the group left the cafeteria.

~*~

Apparently, Togami was not in the changing room anymore. And quite a few of them were happy for it.

“So, what’s up, Fujisaki?” Makoto asked. Leon scratched his head.

“Why meet in here?”

“O-Oh. Well, this is the only room I’ve found where there aren’t any security cameras!” The programmer explained. He then pulled out a laptop from a locker. “S-So… When I got this computer working again, I figured this was the best place to hide it! It’s my way of trying to help everyone!”

“That’s the laptop from the library… I see.” Kirigiri mused. “Were you able to find any information?”

“Well… I think I’ll let my program explain. It’s an AI called Alter Ego!” The programmer beamed.

“AI?” Junko cocked her head.

“Alter Ego is the reason Fujisaki is called the Ultimate Programmer.” Kirigiri explained. “Alter Ego is a program, residing on a computer, that learns and develops through communication. It’s an innovative, revolutionary artificial intelligence, built upon and refined… from the concepts of support vector machines and reinforcement learning…”

“Vector machines? Reinforcement learning?” Naegi was among the confused.

“To put it simply, it’s a way for machines to learn… As the artificial intelligence continues to grow, it becomes more than just a simple assistant… They say it can eventually be used in place of humans for the majority of tasks.” Kirigiri finished her explanation, and Chihiro seemed a little relieved to not have to say all that.

“You sure know a lot, Kirigiri! I’m impressed!” He giggled.

“So that’s why it’s called Alter Ego… An apt name indeed.” Celes complimented Fujisaki. “It develops by building memories and using them in its thought process – just like a human. An artificial intelligence raised in that manner could indeed be considered one’s alternate personality.”

“A perfect personality – one that never forgets, never weakens… That is his program… That is… Alter Ego…” Kyoko added.

It was hard not to be impressed. Even to the people who had little to no knowledge of computers, it sounded like Fujisaki had made something incredible.

“Ah, you’ve come for me, My Lord!” Fujisaki’s smiling face was suddenly on the computer screen, and the program even had his voice.

Mondo looked between the screen and Fujisaki.

“Th-There’s two of ‘em…” He muttered.

Yamada stroked his chin excitedly.

“Mmm! She calls you, ‘My Lord’! I see, I see… That’s so unbelievably… **adorable** ~!”

“What happened to being 2D-only, tubs?” Leon raised an unimpressed eyebrow, arms crossed.

“She is a fine specimen of the second dimension!” Yamada cheered.

“Do you not even remember the last trial? Fujisaki’s a **guy**! So Alter Ego’s a guy! **And** he’s an artificial intelligence!”

“I see no problem here~...” Yamada nodded sagely. Leon just groaned.

After a short bit of typing on the keyboard, Alter Ego started speaking again.

“There’s a large quantity of files on the hard drive that My Lord wanted me to analyze… He thinks they’re documents concerning the academy, but they’re surprisingly well-secured… So it’s taking a bit of time…”

At their inquiring gazes, Chihiro elaborated.

“I’m not sure yet, but the files might be related to the secrets of the academy! That might be why they’re so well-encrypted.”

“How long will it take you to decrypt them?” Kirigiri asked.

“It’s definitely going to take some time…” The programmer apologized. “Alter Ego just started on them yesterday, and he’s got a ways to go still… I’m sorry…”

“No need to apologize!” Sayaka assured him.

“Any information will be helpful, so it’ll be worth the wait!” Naegi chipped in.

“We’ll need to keep Alter Ego a secret…” Kirigiri decided. “Can he lie low without drawing attention to himself?”

“It’ll be fine!” Fujisaki promised. “Like I said, there are no cameras in this room, and Alter Ego will be able to call out for help if he sees anyone suspicious through the webcam!”

Celes hummed doubtfully.

“While that will be no issue during the day, I’m worried about nighttime… Do recall that our rooms are completely soundproof…”

Kirigiri cupped her chin thoughtfully.

“I’ll leave the door to my room open during the nighttime… That way, I won’t fail to notice if Alter Ego starts to scream.”

Mondo’s hand twitched in concern.

“But if you leave your door wide open like that…”

“Yes, there’s a chance I could be killed.” Kirigiri did not deny the possibility. “But… could any of you really kill me? I don’t think I’ll die that easily.”

Sayaka ran a hand through her hair nervously. There was something about Kirigiri’s tone that put them on edge, but at the same time made them confident that their newest source of hope would be safe at all times.

“L-Let’s leave it to Kirigiri… She hasn’t let us down yet.”

“Y-Yeah…” Leon agreed with a nod.

Kirigiri calmly closed her eyes and started walking toward the exit.

“Well, I think that will do it for today… If we stay here too long, the Puppetmaster might take notice.”

No one objected. Fujisaki set the laptop back in the locker and left it open a crack, as it had been before. Admittedly, that first night putting Alter Ego in the changing room had terrified him; but now that he had told everyone else, he felt he’d made the right call. Even if he had a long ways to go yet, Chihiro Fujisaki felt like he was making progress to becoming stronger – not just in body, but his character as well.

~*~

Later that night, Sakura made her way to the gym as the summons demanded. Believing it to be an order from the Puppetmaster, Sakura did so with a heavy heart. The loss of Asahina was still fresh… but for the sake of her remaining friends, for the sake of her dojo, she had to comply.

… Which is why she was shocked that it was Byakuya Togami waiting for her in the gymnasium, and not Monokuma.

“Togami?” The fighter asked warily as she approached. Though there was little he could do to try and hurt her, much less kill her, she was still wary of starting any incidents so soon after the last one.

“Let’s skip the pleasantries.” Togami snapped when he deemed her close enough. His sharp glare stabbed into her. “You know who you are, and I know **what** you are… We both know it’s only a matter of time before you become one of the blackened.”

Sakura’s brow furrowed.

“Then… why summon me here?” Truly. Togami did not seem the type to recklessly call a traitor out when he could die.

That didn’t even get into his assertion of the inevitability of her taking a life… Sakura still wasn’t sure if she would bend her will to Monokuma’s demands, personally. She could understand Togami’s skepticism, though.

The heir scoffed.

“You think I haven’t made arrangements to head that eventuality off? You really are just a patsy…” Togami was cynical and condescending. Though Sakura believed him to be arrogant as well, she could bring herself to believe his words. “Whatever. Getting down to brass tacks… Your very existence being offensive to the nature of this game, I’ll overlook it this once. You are a resource that can help thin the herd, after all.”

As the heir chuckled coldly, Sakura clenched her hands into fists.

“You still insist on your game of ‘King of the Castle’…?” Her voice rumbled.

Togami scowled at her skepticism, glare growing sharper.

“I won’t stand criticism from a useless flunky whose head got put on the chopping block by their employer.” The heir sneered. “And I don’t care to know what you did to piss the bear off enough to have your role revealed so early on… Your only good use is to send a message to your boss. Make sure to tell the Puppetmaster this: I’ll be making my move sooner rather than later. If he wants to redeem this game, make it something thrilling again, I suggest that he hurries it up. Two murders so far, and both were absolutely boring and clear wastes of my time. If the third incentive doesn’t prove compelling enough, I’ll have to take matters into my own hands. After all, I am aware of that **secret** he kept from us in the first trial… And it would be **such** a waste to let that go unrevealed…”

Sakura’s brow furrowed again as she digested the heir’s declarations.

“You… know something that Monokuma has kept from us?”

In response, Togami only crossed his arms and averted his gaze arrogantly from her.

“You’ll find out like all the other mindless sheep… Just be sure the Puppetmaster receives that message. That’s all. We’re done here.” Upon coldly dismissing the fighter, Togami stalked out of the gym, closing the door behind him with a sense of finality.

Left to her thoughts, Sakura pondered Byakuya’s words. It didn’t really make much sense to have her play the simple part of a messenger when the heir could have summoned Monokuma to inform him, himself. Yet Sakura couldn’t discern a possible reason for the heir’s roundabout methods. It was clear Togami didn’t trust her – so why let her in on something that Monokuma was keeping from them? He couldn’t be sure that such a thing would stir up traitorous thoughts within her… Revealing this knowledge seemed to do more harm than good.

Deciding to reflect on it later, Sakura returned to her room. As she did so, she bumped into Naegi and Maizono on her way back, thus proving Togami hadn’t been lying about a contingency for their meeting… That still left the matter of his cryptic words, and Sakura resolved to decipher them.

She had failed to protect Asahina. She would not fail the others. She could not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not completely sure yet, but I've got some details ironed out about this Chapter's murder and villain. We'll be taking some time to "smell the roses", however, so don't worry - I won't rush this one. We'll be seeing some interactions and free time events in the coming chapters. And if we're lucky, I'll mix the incentive(s) in sometime soon, to give them time to simmer and boil.
> 
> 11 survivors left, so it's not exactly EASY... to pick who lives and who dies... Ah, but by this point, I have come to grips with that overwhelmingly cruel and mighty power... I can't promise everyone will be happy, but I'll definitely do my best to ensure the characters are given justice. Death is not the end.... :3


	9. Chapter 3, Part 2: A Next Generation Legend! Stand Tall, Galactic Hero!

Despite all advice he received from the likes of Kuwata, Celes, and Maizono, Naegi decided to hang out with Yamada for once. He wanted to get to know all his classmates better, and that included the clearly perverted otaku. Yamada wasn’t popular, but Naegi thought he’d relatively calmed down after becoming the only writer remaining in their class. Besides, he seemed harmless.

“Now then, would you like to learn about one of my many legends, Mister Makoto Naegi?” Yamada asked poignantly as the two settled into the art room.

“Your legends?” Makoto tilted his head curiously.

Yamada puffed his chest a bit in pride.

“Naturally! You don’t become the Ultimate Fanfic Creator without a few legends sprouting up around you! One such legend is how, in middle school, i was able to convince the school to create a fanfic club! And from that day, I exposed myself and my fanfic to the world at large! By the way, do you happen to know what all my work is based on?” Yamada asked with a grin on his face.

Still, Naegi could only scratch his cheek sheepishly.

“Sorry, no idea…”

“Well, surely you've heard of the highly acclaimed anime **Demon Angel** **☆Pretty Pudgy Princess**!” Yamada exclaimed. He then began to explain his work in more detail. “Now, you might think that that sounds totally cliché, but you would be WRONG! I didn't simply copy the "pretty girl" Princess Piggles style. I took a total meta sci-fi approach! My perspective was seen as quite odd, of course, but if you really look at what I was doing... my version of Princess Piggles was the total antithesis of the new-wave sci-fi movement. In fact, it was my response to J.G. Ballard's speculative fiction stylings!

Yamada yelped and then began panting, to Naegi’s confusion.

“Bwah…! Ahh, my geekdom is leaking out again. I apologize! Anyway, unlike most fans, I never saw Princess Piggles as your typical moe anime.”

Makoto nodded in understanding.

“Yeah, I definitely got that impression... But I can't believe you were able to single-handedly persuade the school to let you make a club...” The luckster had a bit of a hard time wrapping his head around that… but the answer that came didn’t fill him with confidence.

“Oh, that’s because I bribed them with a cut of my profits…” Yamada admitted this with a raised finger and a wily grin.

_‘Profits…?’_ Makoto deadpanned to himself.

Yamada placed his hands on his hips proudly.

“And I've only gotten better at it! I'm blowin' up! Now then, up till now, I've always focused on taking part in Princess Piggles single-setting events.”

“ **Single-setting** …?” Makoto echoed. Yamada nodded sagely.

“It's when a circle gets together to come up with a project or event focused on only one show or series. So a Princess Piggles single-setting event would only allow works involving Princess Piggles, see? On the flipside, if there's no restriction on the number of properties, do you know what that's called?”

Makoto’s brow furrowed as he thought it over.

“The opposite of the single-setting event… Is it just called a **free-for-all**?”

Yamada exploded with enthusiasm.

“That's absolutely right! There are actually plenty of free-for-all events every year, and yet...” Yamada raised a trembling fist in outrage. “More and more slackers are showing up with no idea what fanfic really means! It's so ANNOYING! So in order to crush these peons with all my might, I'm going to start taking part in more free-for-alls!”

Makoto frowned in slight disapproval.

“Crush them…? That doesn’t sound very friendly…”

Yamada entered yet another lecture mode.

“I don't participate in these events to make friends! And I cannot forgive those lazy bastards! And don't tell me to ignore them! If you let some little wimp survive, you'll regret it later! Play any RPG where the villain spares the here when he's level 1, and what happens? Boom! Dead!” At Makoto’s clear skepticism, Yamada huffed exasperatedly. “It's a dog-eat-dog industry, where only the most brutal survive. Oh, but don't worry. I'm gonna start you off easy by getting you involved in some simple **cosplay action**!”

Makoto recoiled at being roped into things.

“Huh? I’m gonna get involved? … Wait, did you say cosplay?!” He was flabbergasted.

Yamada giggled.

“You're a pretty good-looking guy. If your costume was decent enough, I might even let you work my booth! Bwahaha… I bet you could even net yourself a magical girl harem! So with that in mind, let's change the world of fanfic together!” Yamada declared with a passionate determination before setting out. Makoto watched him go, very weirded out.

“… What does that even mean?”

Him? Get a harem? He’d be lucky enough to wind up with just the one girlfriend! He didn’t have the charisma of a shonen protagonist to woo multiple girls… He wouldn’t even know what to do with a harem; one special girl would be more than enough for him. That’s what Makoto thought, at least.

… These thoughts still didn’t stop a shiver from going down his spine, and he wasn’t sure why.

~*~

Sayaka kept a sweet, angelic smile on her lips as Leon kept talking. Her eyes were closed calmly, and hands were clasped behind her back patiently.

“… So ya see, I’ve always had this dream to be a musician! That’s why when Hope’s Peak invited me here, I decided to ditch the lame ol’ baseball stuff and go after my dream full throttle!” Leon raised his clenched fists with a raw passion. “Look at me, chasin’ my dreams down and shit! I’m one extreme badass~!”

Sensing now was the time that Leon wanted to hear her input, Sayaka hummed thoughtfully.

“That sounds very… ambitious, Kuwata-kun. It sounds like you have it all planned out!”

Leon rubbed the back of his head bashfully, grinning cockily.

“I know, right?! Hope’s Peak has the best street cred! If I can make it here, I can make it anywhere!”

Calmly, Sayaka began to pace the hallway they were in. She maintained her pleasant demeanor – she could do that in her sleep.

“I wonder…” Sayaka mused. Internally, she winced at what she was about to do. Leon was a nice enough guy, he didn’t deserve this… “Music takes a lot of work, Kuwata-kun. Dedication. Training. Patience. A passionate drive that you can never let die.”

Leon’s brow furrowed as he crossed his arms and stared at the idol’s back.

“Oh yeah…?” He honestly couldn’t help it, though… eyes trailing down to her skirt. He wasn’t a creep or a sleaze, but he was a healthy adolescent boy. And quite frankly, Sayaka Maizono cut a rather nice figure… She was the Ultimate Idol, for crying out loud!

“Music takes endless hours of practice.” Sayaka went on, slowly tracing a half circle so she was back to facing the baseball star. Her eyes were open now, and her face was carefully neutral as she stared back at him. “And if you want to be the best, it’s a bit like swimming forever… You can’t ever stop, or you’ll drown!”

Leon’s frown deepened. He made sure to take his eyes off of Sayaka’s legs when she turned around. Again – he wasn’t a sleaze.

“But… I mean… As a superstar yourself, you’ve gotta make time for the fans, right?!” Leon refused to believe the music industry was as herculean as the idol was making it out to be. Sure, he knew it was gonna be rigorous, but… A man chasin’ down his dreams could achieve anything! Besides, if Sayaka was at the top, there **had** to be some effortlessness to it if you had the skills and the moxie. And Leon was pretty damn sure he had those!

Sayaka nodded mutely. Her face was still neutral, not betraying any emotions she might have been feeling.

“Oh, of course! Autograph sessions, backstage meet-and-greets, talk shows, magazines, even songwriting… There’s lots of different aspects to the industry, Kuwata-kun. But that’s what makes it all the more daunting.” Sayaka’s tone gained a little steel to it, but she still kept it under control. “If you want to put yourself out there, every piece of who you are belongs to someone else. There’s no ‘you’ time – no time to take it easy. If you ease up for even a moment, you’re going to be left behind and ruined. Fans don’t follow washouts.”

Sayaka knew she was projecting her own experiences, somewhat… but Leon needed this wakeup call. That lazy, cocky attitude was going to land him in a world of hurt; not to mention, it was painfully obvious what his real desires were.

“Jeez… do you hate being an idol, or what?” The baseball star muttered, quirking an eyebrow at her curiously.

Sayaka sighed internally as she anticipated he would remain obstinate. Guys like Leon were stubborn.

“Of course not. I love every moment of it.” Sayaka answered back easily enough. “But… Kuwata-kun? If you **really** want to be the best… you can never, ever stop.”

Leon shrugged his shoulders lazily.

“Eh… I’ll settle for rich and famous! I mean, Hope’s Peak can still be good for that!” He grinned easily.

Sayaka mustered a smile as he went on to ask her for tips. It was flawlessly easy to manage, as ever: Smile, beam, laugh… **Shine**. Be the brightest star. Give the fans hopes, dreams, and aspirations. Never let them say “never” or “can’t”. “You can do it, if you just try…!”

… Except Leon didn’t need to be encouraged. Not about this. Sayaka tried pointing him in the right direction, but of course he ignored the cues. Because he was an Ultimate, just like her. That meant if he put his mind to it, he could get into music, no problem. He could pick up all the girls he could ever want. Even though he didn’t say that was his ambition, Sayaka could see right through him. Leon couldn’t take his eyes off of her, that was for sure… and he probably thought he’d been subtle.

_‘I’m probably going to need to hang out with Naegi-kun, after this…’_ Sayaka thought to herself, her smile becoming strained for a split second before flickering away. Makoto really was her one ray of hope in here… Didn’t have to put up any fronts. Didn’t have to worry about exposing her weaknesses. Could just be **herself** …

And still, Leon rambled on, ever blissfully unaware. The more time he spent with Sayaka, the more he became intoxicated by her. Even if she was pretty extreme with her views on music, she was still one helluva woman.

~*~

“Oi, Naegi.”

Makoto stopped what he was doing in the kitchen and glanced up at the heir, surprised the blond deigned to speak with him.

“Hey, Togami! You need something?” Even if he knew the heir was prickly, Naegi wasn’t going to turn him down if he wanted to talk.

Byakuya strode over lazily, looking the luckster up and down before crossing his arms and frowning.

“… I have a question for you. Something's been bothering me for a while now, and I can't take it anymore. So to answer my question... I need you to explain to me what exactly your "Ultimate Lucky Student" title means.”

Shrugging his shoulders lazily, Makoto nodded his head. A rather simple and straightforward question, in his opinion.

“Oh, well… I don’t really get it myself, but… ...what I do know is that I was picked at random from a pool of normal students.”

Togami tapped his temple for a few moments. He then snorted derisively, to the luckster’s confusion.

“So you got into Hope’s Peak by blind luck. I see. Well, that answers my question.” The heir smirked, arms still crossed.

Naegi scratched his cheek in confusion.

“Er… What was the question…?”

“How a commoner like you, with absolutely no unique talents or abilities, could get into this school.” Togami snidely remarked, eyeing him disdainfully. “Oh, I forgot to mention boring. How a boring, untalented, utterly generic commoner got in...”

_‘Boring? Generic?’_ The luckster sweatdropped as he thought to himself. Out loud, he said, “D-Did you really have to list all that off...?”

“But it’s the truth.” Togami rebutted.

Makoto placed a hand over his chest as he passionately objected.

“Maybe compared to you, the Ultimate Affluent Progeny and all...  
But even I…!”

The heir uncrossed his arms and glared the luckster down.

“You seem to think it's merely an issue of title. But make no mistake...  
My lineage, intelligence, figure, athletic ability—they are all ultimate.” He pointed passionately at the luckster to further drive his point home. “Which is to say, I am the **Ultimate Perfection**. Feel free to begin calling me that, in fact.”

Makoto kept scratching his cheek nervously.

_‘He’s really taking this to the extreme…’_

Togami crossed his arms again and shook his head, regally.

“You, who have nothing. I, who have everything. We are living proof that all men are **not** created equal. You have my pity, Makoto. Life can be very cruel indeed.”

Makoto stared down at the floor, really not sure how to respond to all that. But Togami went on, regardless.

“And because I pity you so much, perhaps someday I'll allow you to hear my tale of glory. Consider it a blessing, a gift from me to you, to allow you to bask in my glory.”

Once Togami finished his mean-spirited lecture, he left the luckster there in an awkward silence.

“I learned one thing about Byakuya today... Anytime I talk to him, I need to be prepared for extreme psychological trauma.” Makoto muttered to himself, vaguely remembering the initial reason he entered the kitchen in the first place.

… If he’d forgotten his snack because of Togami’s lecture, life really **would** have been cruel…

~*~

Maybe it was an unfair stereotype, but Naegi wasn’t too surprised to find Mondo up in the rec room, the next day. The Luckster just had this understanding from watching movies and shows that gang-types liked to play billiards in bars… And, well, it couldn’t be all wrong. It’s what the Ultimate Biker was doing right now, apparently blowing off some steam.

“Yo, Naegi! Wanna play a round?”

Naegi rubbed the back of his head.

“Actually, I just wanted to talk and see how you were doing. You know, after…” He trailed off meaningfully. Mondo just stared at him for several moments before sighing and rubbing the back of his neck.

“I get why you’re worried, man, but you don’t have to be. I…” The biker’s hand twitched as he gritted his teeth. “I’m pissed. It’s true. But… I’m not pissed with you guys. We condemned Ishimaru… but… the one who put Bro in that position wasn’t you. It was me and Monokuma. Monokuma, the little sadistic, opportunistic shit he is; and me… the fucking coward, who Ishimaru was worried over. If I’d just… grown a fucking spine, manned up and told him my secret, he’d be here right now. Asahina, too.”

“You’re not a coward, Mondo!” The Luckster argued. “No one wanted their secrets getting out!”

Mondo growled.

“Don’t you fucking get it?! It’s not just about being a coward… It’s being **strong**. Ever since Daiya died… I had to take up the reins and prove I could fill his shoes! If the gang found out I got big bro killed, that would’ve been the end of it. The gang my bro and I worked so hard to form and keep together… everyone would’ve just quit on me. I was **terrified** of that! Shit!” He vigorously shook his head. “I literally had no idea what to do, Naegi. I didn’t want to kill anyone, but if I didn’t, I would’ve failed my promise to Daiya. To keep the gang together.”

“But you didn’t kill anyone!” Naegi pointed out encouragingly, which only garnered a snort from the biker.

“Yeah, by sheer dumb luck!” Mondo shivered as he slammed his fist down onto the pool table. “Fujisaki said I never had to tell anyone, that it didn’t matter, but you know what? It fucking matters. I nearly killed the kid that night, when he came clean about his gender.”

Makoto’s eyes widened in disbelief. Mondo had… almost killed Fujisaki…?

“Wh-Why?” The brunet asked. “What happened?”

Mondo took a deep breath, bowing his head.

“I was not in a good mood that night. Bro tried giving me support, and I slammed the door in his face. And then… ‘cause I had Fujisaki’s secret, I just **had** to know if that was the truth or if Monokuma was spewing bullshit!” Mondo’s hand twitched again as he raised his head with gritted teeth, growling at himself in frustration. “It was a secret he didn’t want anyone to know about until he was ready, and still, he told me about it. Even after I tricked him into coming up to the locker room. Because he respected me. Admired me. He… thought I was strong. And I… was unstable as hell because of the motive… All I could think about was ‘being strong’, and the fucking jealousy I felt toward Fujisaki for admitting his secret like that… it was unreal… Before I knew it, I was swingin’ at the kid and yelling some shit about how I was stronger than Daiya…

Mondo clenched his fist and closed his eyes in aggravation, his face gaining a bit of a blue hue.

“I was **that** close to making Fujisaki a smear on the floor! **That close**!” He snarled in frustration. “I’m a fucking monster, no better than the bastard who executed Bro…”

_‘But you didn’t do it…!’_ was on the tip of Naegi’s tongue. He knew that was what he wanted to say. What he **had** to say… But he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Not because he doubted Mondo, or believed the biker’s self-deriding words… But because he didn’t know how to back his words up. How to make Mondo understand he wasn’t the real monster – that it was Monokuma and the one controlling him. **They** were the monsters.

Still, it seemed Naegi didn’t need to.

“… But you didn’t do it.”

Makoto and Mondo froze at the voice – the luckster because he hadn’t heard her enter the rec room, and the biker because of who she was.

“O-Oogami!” Makoto yelped, stumbling back a little in shock. Mondo echoed the name with various emotions in his tone.

Sakura crossed her arms and regard the two boys before looking at Mondo sharply.

“Oowada, you do need to control that anger, it’s true. It has hurt a lot of people, and will continue to hurt them unless you can get it under control.” The fighter calmly stated, not naming any names. She didn’t need to. “Beating yourself up over something that never happened – Fujisaki doesn’t want you to do that. Naegi-kun doesn’t want you to do that. We both know Asahina and Ishimaru wouldn’t want you to do that. The only one who does is yourself, out of self-depreciation. You said it yourself: Fujisaki forgives you. That’s all you need to move on.”

Makoto smiled gratefully at the Ultimate Fighter, who offered a small smile in return but kept her steady gaze on the biker. He honestly couldn’t have put it better, himself.

Mondo, however…

“Move on…?” Mondo echoed. He raised a fist furiously. “I nearly killed the kid, and Ishimaru’s **dead**! Asahina’s dead! I can’t act like none of this ever happened!”

“That’s not the point of moving on.” Naegi shook his head, placing a hand over his chest. “It’s true, these things happened, and you’ll have to carry them with you for the rest of your life… The point, though, is not to let them weigh you down.”

Sakura nodded sagely, garnering the biker’s attention again.

“Ishimaru gave his life so that we – that **you** – would live on. If you won’t live for your own sake… live for Ishimaru’s sake. Live for Asahina’s sake. For Hagakure and for Fukawa.”

Mondo’s head craned to the luckster again as he continued passionately.

“If you spend your life just regretting his death… that’s not really living. Living is looking to the future! And Fujisaki probably feels the same way. You two are friends now, right?”

The biker rubbed the back of his neck again. He had to admit, the luckster and fighter both brought up some excellent points. After all, Daiya told him to live on, too.

“… Yeah… I guess you’re right.” He relented. “I couldn’t turn the kid down. Not after he had the guts to tell me his secret like that… Nothin’ left for it, I guess. Just gotta beat that bear before we lose anyone else.”

Mondo turned to Sakura again with uncertainty dancing in his eyes.

“... I guess I should apologize to you, though. I mean… Asahina wouldn’t have been targeted if Bro hadn’t been so worried over me!”

Sakura half-turned away from the biker, a pensive look on her face.

“Oowada, you have nothing to apologize for. While I will always be uncertain about my feelings for Ishimaru, whether I will ever truly be able to forgive him for what he did, those feelings do not pertain to you. Not in the slightest. You and I… have a duty to protect the friends we have left. I would rather do that as a united front, than push you away out of a senseless grudge.”

Slowly, Mondo nodded and grunted in agreement. He’d accept their continued friendship… How could he not?

As an act of goodwill, Mondo told Makoto and Sakura about how he lost his brother, Daiya. It was just one morning, but the luckster really felt like he got to know Mondo better. He was still somewhat intimidating to talk to, but Mondo wasn’t just some ornery thug that didn’t care about anyone. He did have his own precious friends, and he was starting to see everyone here as people he needed to protect. He was still grieving from Ishimaru’s loss, but that grief hadn’t conquered him.

Makoto assured Mondo if he ever wanted to take up the leadership role, he would gladly pass it on. But Mondo just shook his head, grinned, and said Makoto was the better guy for the job. They all needed someone who could cheer them up, leading them like this, and in return Mondo said they’d all support him. Because even the brightest beacons could die out, and Mondo wasn’t going to lose anyone else if he could help it. In the end, Naegi couldn’t help admiring Mondo’s ironclad will; Fujisaki had an amazing idol.

~*~

Shortly after parting ways with Mondo and Sakura, Makoto ran into Junko, who was apparently looking for him. Curious as to why the fashionista wanted to talk to him alone, he followed her to the physics lab. As expected, no one was hanging out in there.

“So what’s up?” Naegi asked as the blonde plopped herself down on the table by the air purifier.

“I guess I just wanted to finally talk about my true intentions…” Junko mused as she looked up mindlessly.

“Huh?” He replied intelligibly.

“To be honest, I'm kinda fed up with all this. We're all Ultimates, right? So we get carried away and rush face-first into stuff... Even I have to wonder if it's okay to live like that...” The blonde began to explain.

“Are you thinking of quitting modeling or something?” Makoto wondered. It sounded a little like Leon, and how he wanted to become a rockstar.

Junko was quiet for several moments. She just stared at Naegi and twirled one of her pigtails around her finger.

“... Dreams are meant to change as you grow up, right? Depending on where you're at—kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school... But I've had the same dream since I was a little kid, and I've been rushing toward it ever since. So I've never really had to think all that hard about my dreams.”

Naegi tilted his head.

“What’s wrong with that? It just means you still feel the same way about it, right?”

Junko shrugged.

“That's what I used to think. But if it doesn't change, your possibilities can't grow, right? That's how new opportunities are born. And up until now, I never did that. I never let my dreams grow... All I saw was that one dream. I put everything I had into that one narrow little world... I feel like there's so much more I could be doing that I'm not, and I don't like that feeling... So I think I'm going to start looking for it... Is it childish of me to think like that? Am I just being a baby?”

As the Luckster regarded his blonde friend more closely, he saw a vulnerability there that he hadn’t seen up until that point. Junko was really opening up her heart to him here. This wasn’t just her messing with him; this was a real internal struggle that she was facing. Out of respect, he considered her question carefully before answering.

“No, not at all... I'm the same way.” The brunet admitted. “I'm still trying to figure out what it is I want to do. And sometimes I feel like I'll never find it... I feel like maybe I'll spend the rest of my life looking for it... But I'm not sure it's even about finding it or not finding it... Maybe the important thing is that you're ‘looking’ for it.”

If Junko’s staring was slightly unnerving before, the intensity in her eyes was overwhelming now. But it wasn’t hostility or intimidation – Naegi got the vague sense that Junko really admired him. But there were a lot of emotions mixed in those eyes, and he wasn’t sure he could pick out and label each one. It made him really curious about the fashionista now.

“Makoto, you… You actually sounded kinda cool just now!” The blonde suddenly gushed.

The Luckster waved his hands as a pink lightly dusted his cheeks.

“N-No, that’s not what I was trying to…” Naegi found himself abruptly cut off.

“But you could be right. Getting lost can be a good thing! As long as you're looking for it, maybe that's enough to be happy...” The fashionista nodded sagely. “Yeah, I’m gonna remember that. Thanks, Makoto…”

“S-Sure…” Naegi looked off to the side in embarrassment.

“In return, I promise that if I do decide to kill someone, it won't be you!” Junko suddenly blurted out, catching the Luckster even more off-guard.

“Huh?! Don’t suddenly say scary stuff like that!”

“Ehehe!” The blonde giggled. “Yeah, I guess that stuff’s more Celes’s forte, huh… Well, before I can put what ya said into practice, we have to get out of here first! Yeah! I wanna make it out of here with you, and not just by myself.”

Even though Naegi was thoroughly confused with her sense of humor, he decided to just drop it and move on to lighter topics. As far as he was concerned, Junko wasn’t a psychotic murderer. She helped out with the class trials, and she was every bit as frightened as they were to be stuck in here. He felt like with this discussion just now, he’d gotten to see a glimpse of Junko’s true self. She wasn’t just some carefree schoolgirl; Junko had her own thoughts and feelings. And Naegi felt honored she was opening up to him.

~*~

“I can’t believe you agreed to become her knight.”

Naegi felt himself wilt under Sayaka’s adorable pout. He knew she was kidding… probably… but that face was nevertheless super effective against him.

“I… I never **agreed** to it…!” Naegi spoke in his defense.

“You didn’t say ‘no’…” Sayaka rebutted. Naegi sweatdropped, and was not able to argue any further. It was true… he told Celes he’d think about it…

It was now approaching nighttime, a day after Naegi spent time with Junko. The days had been pretty peaceful. Kuwata, Yamada, Kirigiri, Oogami, Fujisaki, Enoshima, Oowada, Celes… He and Sayaka had slowly been spending more and more time with them. Naegi had apparently been “promoted” to C-rank, which gave him the “honor” of being Celes’s knight… And him being the nice guy he was, Naegi probably wouldn’t have the heart to turn her down. Sayaka was right about that.

They really should’ve seen Monokuma’s next motive coming. He never let things stay peaceful for long. In place of the usual nighttime announcement, Monokuma told everyone to head to the gym, where he had a present for them. Having little choice but to obey, Makoto and Sayaka went there.

Of course, Togami had been the first one there.

“To think **I** would be made to wait for **you** … If guns were allowed, I’d shoot you where you stand…” The heir glared at Naegi and the rest, who filed in shortly after.

“Relax, ya douche!” Leon rolled his eyes. “Not all of us are ‘gung-ho’ for this crap.”

Celes giggled at the snarling heir.

“I see you haven’t changed at all… Well, it’s to be expected. I sincerely doubt you’ve done more than perused the library since the last class trial…”

“Shut your damn mouth…” Togami hissed. Sakura crossed her arms, prepared to intervene if she had to.

“Regardless, it seems we are all here now.”

“Then, it’s about time…” Kirigiri mused.

“Hey, looks like everyone’s here!” Monokuma cheered. “Let’s get goin’ then, huh?!”

Togami scowled at the bear.

“Spit it out. What’s your ‘incentive’ this time?”

“Whatever it may be, we will not bend to your will.” Sakura declared boldly.

“We’re not giving in this time…!” Mondo agreed with a loud yell.

Monokuma just laughed.

“Upupu… There’s no need to get so worked up. I’ve changed my strategy this time. Up ‘til now, I’ve been fightin’ against ya – all pew-pew north wind ‘n stuff… So I thought ya might need some nice, warm sun fer once! Daaahahaha!” Monokuma spread out his arms as he got behind a table on the stage. A moment later, money began to fall on the table in nice, clean stacks. “So, with a little bit of this and a little bit of that… I’ve prepared this! **Teeeen biiiillion yeeeen**! It’s a present for whoever manages to graduate! Waddya think? It’s ten billion yen! **Ten billion yen**! You’re frothing at the mouth, ain’tcha?!”

Naegi quirked an eyebrow. **Money** was Monokuma’s incentive this time? That couldn’t be all there was to it.

“You know, even if it is ten billion yen…” Naegi trailed off, as Togami cut him off.

“It’s short a few too many zeroes.”

“Money… Indeed, one of the most basic of incentives.” Kirigiri mused. “In the world of mysteries, and the real world…”

Mondo’s hand twitched violently.

“ **Money**?! Is that all you got?! If this is it, we’ll be getting out soon, ‘cause that motive’s weak as hell…!”

“True…” Leon tilted his head, frowning. “Most of us have enough moolah where we don’t ‘need’ any more of the stuff, ‘cause we can just earn that over time. No need to kill over it.”

Fujisaki looked relieved to see so many people standing up to Monokuma. Sakura shook her head.

“You cannot place a value on human life.”

“It could be ten billion, ten trillion, or ten quadrillion… Heck, it wouldn’t have to be money!” Sayaka piped up. “We won’t kill any of our friends!”

Monokuma giggled.

“Your ‘power of friendship’ spiels are kinda gettin’ old, y’know. You keep fightin’ to keep everyone on the straight and narrow, ‘kay?” With those ominous words, Monokuma left.

Fujisaki looked tentatively around at everyone.

“S-So… We’ll be okay, right? No one would kill over money?”

Togami rolled his eyes.

“Did you already forget the moral of our last story? Not everyone views the world through your eyes…”

Junko hummed thoughtfully.

“Just to be safe… Anyone here with money troubles?”

“I’ve won over a billion yen gambling.” Celes giggled. “There’s nothing I want that I can’t obtain.”

“How about you, tubs?” Leon turned on him next, seeing as how he’d been quiet, too.

“I am a highly successful doujin artist!” Yamada cheered. “I have plenty of money to purchase manga and DVDs!”

“And how about **you** , Naegi…? You come from an **ordinary** family, correct?” Togami asked maliciously. But before he or anyone could come to his defense, Sakura spoke up to address them all.

“Stop this. There is nothing more shameful than paranoia over money.” The Ultimate Fighter glowered at Togami in particular.

In the next moment, the usual nighttime announcement rang out, signaling that the cafeteria was off-limits once again.

“It’s already this late, huh…” Sayaka frowned.

Junko yawned and stretched.

“Let’s just go to bed for now and talk about everything tomorrow! No use getting all paranoid now – or something **will** happen ‘cause somebody didn’t get enough shuteye.”

Togami snickered, instantly putting everyone on high alert.

“On the contrary… I think everyone should be on their guard. You see, I came across something truly fascinating...”

“Oh yeah? Could it be a **heart**?” Leon replied snidely. Togami barely acknowledged his comment. Mondo raised his fist furiously.

“I swear to God, if you try anything…!”

Togami rolled his eyes.

“Like I would be one to carelessly announce when I am going to move in for the checkmate… No. This whole time, I’ve been looking into ways to make this dull game exciting once again. And the discovery I made was very illuminating…” Togami raised an index finger to his temple arrogantly. “One of us… is Genocide Jack. It’s an indisputable truth.”

Everyone immediately went still. Fujisaki and a few others let out shocked gasps. The programmer had proposed early on that it was possible their captor was the infamous serial killer… But here, Togami was proposing it was one of them. That was a very chilling difference – to think that an unseen enemy could be a deranged serial killer, but to even entertain the thought that it could be one of **them** , standing in this gymnasium right now?

“Stop fucking around, asshole…!” Mondo roared as he stomped up to the heir. “This is just your pathetic attempt to make us turn on one another!”

Togami shook his head.

“You don’t have to take my word for it. Ask Monokuma if you’re so concerned.” He pointed arrogantly at the biker. “ **Or** … If you cannot even take the gamemaster’s word for it, go and read the Genocide Jack case file in the archives. It was very easy to puzzle out which one of us it is. Even a brainless thug like you could work it out, Oowada.”

“ **What’d you call me**?!”

Celes muffled a giggle with her hand.

“My, my. You seem awfully calm, for someone who knows an unstable serial killer is in our midst. Either you’re lying through your teeth about this information, or you’re so arrogant that you believe you could be a match for Genocide Jack…”

Togami scoffed.

“It’s not arrogance, but pure confidence. All of you cling to your sappy, useless camaraderie, when you don’t even realize you were fraternizing with a deranged psychopath. I, who has been ‘in it to win it’ since the first murder, have not seen **any** of you as ‘allies’. Matching wits with Genocide Jack? There’s no better time to throw down the gauntlet. I have **no doubt** that this next round will be the final one. If that paltry amount of cash is not enough to incite a killing… the mere knowledge that a serial killer is among us will do the trick.”

As the heir crossed his arms and sneered, Makoto pointed at him in righteous anger.

“You’re wrong…! We’re not going to kill each other over this!” The luckster shook his head. “Togami… While you were busy looking for ways to ‘spice things up’, we’ve been bonding with each other! We’ve seen the kind of people we are! If Genocide Jack was really among us… we would’ve seen something long before now!”

“How asinine…” Togami scoffed. “People are duplicitous, Naegi. Or didn’t the last trial teach you that? Your ‘fearless leader’ got so worked up that he killed just so his buddy’s dirty little secret could remain hidden… For the little good it did him. There is a distinct reason that Genocide Jack has never been arrested, and it’s not because of physical capabilities alone. If you continue to plead ignorance like this, you **will** be killed because of that naiveté. Just look where it got Asahina.”

“Enough!” Sakura barked, glowering at the heir. “You have said more than enough, Togami. If I need to, I **will** restrain you. It is in poor taste to insult someone who has only been kind to you, but it is even worse to speak ill of the deceased.”

Togami turned on his heel, not turning back to look even once.

“Fine. Continue as you were, then.” He stalked off.

Naegi honestly wanted to understand the heir. He was so prickly to everyone, and he treated their whole ordeal like it really was just a game… But the Luckster wanted to believe that somewhere, deep down, Togami didn’t mean any of that. That somehow, this was just his coping mechanism for this whole ordeal.

… Unfortunately, Togami’s words would prove powerful enough to disrupt their harmony. The luckster just didn’t know that with a little more time, events would snowball into the next murder… 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit shaky, but, we'll be continuing more with free-time events in the next chapter. There's going to be more to the motive than just money, and I'm looking forward to unveiling Part Two of the motive that Monokuma cooks up. :3 
> 
> Overall, a lot of Makoto hanging out with people, but, I do feel it's adequately appropriate with him being the MC. That doesn't mean next time won't have more interactions not involving him; I actually wanted to get to a couple more in this chapter, but I felt the chapter was dragging a bit with the ones I drummed up here. 
> 
> Last note for now... I updated the tags, at last. Because yeah, even with rewriting this, I still feel a desire to make it a small harem with the ships. No, I won't be pairing off every girl with Makoto, but you gotta admit, Sayaka and Mukuro both liked him a lot, in canon. Mukuro was more subtle and nuanced with it - discounting the original "IF" novel, since a fan wrote that - but I feel it's appropriate as more time goes on, Mukuro plays tug-of-war with Sayaka over their luckster. It's not gonna be a one-off rivalry. XD I hope you guys won't be too bothered. But if you feel it's too much at times, just say the word, and I'll rework some things (though not everything).


	10. Chapter 3, Part 3: A Next Generation Legend! Stand Tall, Galactic Hero!

Celes slowly sipped at her tea before adopting a frown.

“… It really is such a pity Naegi-kun was not free this afternoon. Yamada makes the tea adequate, but Naegi-kun seems to have a more natural touch that brings out the flavors… Ahh, when we escape, Naegi-kun shall simply have to continue practicing at it – I shall not allow anyone else to brew it ever again. His skill must be cultivated.” The gambler giggled, placing a hand over her mouth to hide the devilish smile.

Across the table from her, Kyoko raised a delicate eyebrow. She was sitting with one leg crossed over the other and arms crossed; a cup of coffee sat in front of her, steam rising from it.

“You’re rather attached to Naegi.” It wasn’t a question.

Celes tilted her head to the side away from Kirigiri, twirling a lock of black hair around her finger.

“It is hardly surprising. Out of everyone, he is the most pleasant to be around. Not a nuisance like Kuwata, Oowada, or Enoshima. Not arrogant and proud like Togami. Doesn’t grovel like Yamada. You, Oogami, and Fujisaki are acceptable, though for the latter two, I am afraid our interests differ too greatly. Maizono hides it, but she is jaded and does not trust me.” Celes clasped her hands in front of herself while looking down. “… I will not speak of the deceased, as not a single one of them caught my interest. If anything, it is a relief not to deal with them anymore.”

Kyoko released a small sigh at Celes’s disregard for the dead, but didn’t comment on it. While she herself had moved on from their deaths, somehow finding it rather natural and easy to not be traumatized by the sights of corpses and executions, she knew that all people had their own views on the matter. The gambler’s views would certainly spur the likes of Naegi, Maizono, and Oogami to argue with her, but Kyoko had enough clinical detachment to not flare her nostrils at opposing or different viewpoints.

“Naegi is rather plain, though… Some might argue ‘too boring and droll’, especially for the more lavished lifestyle you seem to enjoy.” The mysterious girl pointed out.

Celes held a knuckle over her mouth as she considered her next words.

“Naegi-kun comes from a common, traditional family, and it has shaped much of who he is. However, it is not like I cannot sympathize with his desire to ‘fit in’ at this school – an institution established for the upper echelons of society.” … His troubles, honestly, hit a little too close to home for Celes. “He hides it well, but he possesses a powerful, vivacious spirit. It has helped him thus far in the trials, and thus aided our continued survival. And he gives out his unwavering loyalty quite easily…”

Kyoko narrowed her eyes at the gambler.

“Naegi is one that places his trust too lightly in others; his openness and transparency **is** going to get him hurt, at this rate…”

Celes folded her hands under her chin and beamed pleasantly.

“Now you sound like Togami, Kirigiri-san… To be honest, I find his heart-on-his-sleeve candor to be… endearing. And very welcome in this stressful environment. I suppose it’s only natural Maizono and Enoshima would gravitate to him…”

Kyoko sighed with slight exasperation, but chose again not to pick fights. It was hard to get a read on Celes, but at the very least, she could discern one thing…

Naegi’s earnest desire to make friends with his classmates could be seen as admirable, but it could also be extremely dangerous. Not because Naegi himself would take advantage of those bonds… But because his natural gift for making friends paired him with some rather dangerous individuals.

Kyoko didn’t know what Celes exactly had planned, but she knew it would take just a push or two more before she would put those plans into action… As unhealthy as it was, Kyoko hoped Naegi kept Celes enthralled. For all their sakes.

~*~

Yamada panted heavily as he leaned over Fujisaki’s shoulder, staring at the screen.

“Sh-She really is quite adorable~!” The otaku squealed in delight.

Fujisaki frowned thoughtfully as he kept his concentration on aiding Alter Ego. Kirigiri had said drawing as little attention to the sauna as possible was highly advised, but the programmer had clearance because he could help get the files decrypted faster. But that clearance did only apply to the daytime.

Unfortunately, Fujisaki hadn’t accounted for the possibility of someone taking an interest in his program.

“I-If it’s not too much trouble, Mister Chihiro Fujisaki… C-C-Could I… have a few minutes a-alone with her…?” Yamada panted excitedly.

… Scratch that. The possibility of someone **falling in love** with his program…

Still, Fujisaki valiantly ignored Yamada, because his work was more important than the otaku’s weird… fantasies.

And he would have happily gone about his work…!

If only Hifumi hadn’t gotten bold and started stroking the screen affectionately…

“Y-Yamada…?” Fujisaki nervously smiled, trying to hold the laptop out of the otaku’s reach. “C-Could you not do that? I-I need to concentrate…”

Yamada nodded vigorously.

“Oh, of course…! I understand! Those files are super-duper important to decrypt!” The otaku held a finger to his mouth and panted once again. “I-I just can’t help it, you know? Last night was so stimulating, and I… I just… I’d only need a **few** minutes of Alter Ego’s precious time…!”

Fujisaki’s eyes zoned out at the implications, turning into pinpricks.

“… You were alone with Alter Ego?” Fujisaki didn’t like the sound of that. He didn’t like the sound of that at all.

“Oh, we must’ve talked for at least a good hour…!” Yamada gushed gleefully, filling the programmer with more dread. “I hope you don’t mind~! She really is quite taken with me!”

… Damn Alter Ego’s curious nature. Damn it to hell. Fujisaki would need to rewrite those algorithms. Yamada wasn’t a **bad** person, just, the thought of him being alone with Alter Ego… disturbed Fujisaki more than he would like to admit… Not to mention they couldn’t risk Monokuma finding out about Alter Ego!

“… I think I’d better talk with Kirigiri about locking up Alter Ego in a locker at night…” Fujisaki mused, a thoughtful frown on his face. “I could keep the locker key with me…”

Apparently Yamada didn’t like that.

“ **Nooo**! Please let me speak with her…! She… She listens to me…! She’s the only girl that’s shown interest in me…!”

Fujisaki shook his head negatively.

“N-No…! That’s just Alter Ego’s nature! He wants to keep learning new things!” And Fujisaki swore he was going to fix that as much as he could. Alter Ego’s innocence was on the line here.

“I have so much more I wish to tell her…!” Yamada whispered in a way that further disturbed Fujisaki. But before Fujisaki could say or do anything, a baseball was lobbed into the side of Yamada’s head, making him stumble back into a wall.

Fujisaki blinked as he registered Leon now standing there, bouncing another baseball in the palm of his hand lazily.

“You just don’t learn, do you, tubs? What’d Kirigiri tell you about Alter Ego, huh? Stop sleazing and let Fujisaki work!” He sighed as Yamada squealed and hastily retreated. He then craned his head at Fujisaki and sheepishly grinned. “Sorry about that! Kirigiri heard all about Yams creepin’ on Alter Ego, so we’re tryin’ to nip that in the bud!”

Fujisaki released a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He beamed gratefully at the baseball star.

“Thanks, Kuwata! You guys are the best!” He giggled contentedly.

Leon just kept grinning and rubbing the back of his head bashfully.

“Well, somebody’s gotta keep the perv in line! Heh. Too bad Oogami won’t let us do anything about Togami, though. He’s up to somethin’, so we should just tie him up now!”

Fujisaki frowned and bowed his head sadly.

“I… I think we should just leave Togami alone. Tying him up is too mean… He didn’t ask to be here, either!” Fujisaki blinked and looked up as the baseball star placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, hey, I was just kidding! … Well, mostly. No one’s gonna bully anyone, okay? We might not all get along, but I think we’re understanding each other better! And that’s a lot better than stressing out over dumb motives and solving murder mysteries… Am I right?!”

Fujisaki gave a small, tentative smile before nodding sadly.

He really hoped this peace would last.

~*~

“It’s not easy being in love, Mister Makoto Naegi…” Yamada lamented, slumping over a table in depression. Makoto, for his part, was surprised the otaku was going that far with it.

“L… Love?” The luckster scratched his cheek sheepishly. _‘For a computer program?’_

Yamada nodded sluggishly.

“Yes… Love…” The otaku sighed wistfully again. “I never thought one such as I would be cursed with that emotion, but there it is! I can admit it! I have fallen in love with Alter Ego…”

As Yamada went on to describe everything he loved about the computer program, from its aesthetics and voice to its kind personality and friendliness, Makoto could only sweatdrop and do his best to not shatter his dreams. Yet while Makoto had the patience of a saint, clearly the other person at the table did not.

“Yamada… shut up, or you’re cleaning the halls with a toothbrush.” Celes snapped, trying to enjoy her tea in peace. Obviously she was failing with the current subject matter and company.

From his side of the table, Makoto attempted to come to the otaku’s defense.

“Yamada got hit with a baseball, Celes! We can at least hear him out!”

Celes beamed pleasantly, folding her hands under her chin.

“If we encourage his behavior, he may get hit with more baseballs… or worse. Stopping him now is only merciful~!”

Makoto opened his mouth again to refute, but it was Yamada who cut in this time.

“Now, now, Mister Makoto Naegi… Miss Celestia Ludenberg may have a point, and I do not wish to disturb you two with my vexing curse…” The otaku said, still rather deflated. “Besides, there are still many chores Porky must see to before Miss Celestia Ludenberg is satisfied for the day… I must not disappoint her!”

As Yamada puffed up his chest in pride and then darted off to the kitchen, Makoto shot Celes a dry look. It didn’t affect her very much if her giggling was any indication.

“Oh, don’t be like that, Naegi-kun. Yamada has accepted his place, and I fear he rather enjoys being treated as such. We must not discourage such behavior – after all, with his mind devoted to such tasks, he won’t be tempted by Monokuma’s latest motive.”

Makoto visibly deflated at that.

“I… guess…” While he disagreed with the method, he couldn’t argue with the reasoning behind it. “Can’t we just let him make his doujin, now that the art room is open? I think I’d feel better if he was doing something he liked, and not something he was intimidated into doing…”

“Yamada **likes** to serve.” Celes reiterated, stubbornly. “If he has the time to dream up perverted manga, he can make better use of that time through **chores**.”

Makoto scratched his cheek nervously.

“P… Perverted manga?”

Celes took a sip of her tea calmly and elegantly.

“I can read people better than you, Naegi-kun… Yamada and Kuwata are both deviants – the difference is, Yamada has placed himself under my heel where he belongs.”

“… But wouldn’t that mean you’re enabling his fetish? If that’s what he ‘wants’?” The luckster reasonably asked. This earned him a dry look from the gambler once she set her cup back down on the plate.

“Naegi-kun… as my Knight, you are supposed to protect my health, both physical and mental.” The Goth deadpanned. “Thinking about Yamada’s **habits** does not take me to a happy place…”

“… You’re the one who brought it up first.” Makoto shot back. “And besides, I didn’t agree to that yet.”

“Only a matter of time, Naegi-kun. ‘Tis only a matter of time.”

~*~

In a blue tracksuit, Fujisaki was sweating and breathing heavily as he continued jogging up the stairs.

“A-Are you sure this is a good idea…?”

Keeping pace beside him, Sakura nodded firmly.

“Most people underestimate just how effective stairs can be for exercise. Do not worry, only a few more reps to go, and then we can cool down.”

Fujisaki smiled nervously.

“U-Um… It’s n-not me I was worried about…” A quick glance behind them revealed a heavily panting Oowada. He was also in a blue tracksuit like Fujisaki.

… To be fair, he **had** been doing more reps before Fujisaki had started, and his pace was a lot faster when he and Sakura weren’t crowding the stairway.

Sakura smirked, looking back at the biker as well.

“Do not fret. Oowada is a man… Even if his pacing needs some work, he is too stubborn to let something as simple as this defeat him.”

Mondo twitched at hearing that. She wasn’t **wrong** , but…

“A-Are we going to do some weights after this…?” Fujisaki said after a few moments of thoughtful silence as they continued jogging. Sakura shook her head.

“To make sure we do not wear out your body, we will only work with one muscle group each day. It may be frustrating, but I assure you: if you keep at it, you will see results sooner than you think!”

Fujisaki hung his head a little.

“… Oh…” While he knew his body was frail and he needed to be stronger, it **was** frustrating, knowing that the regimen Sakura designed was pulling its punches…

The programmer blinked as Sakura clapped him on the shoulder as they reached the second floor and allowed Mondo to pass them again.

“Fujisaki, you don’t need to be down on yourself. What you lack in physical strength, you more than make up for in willpower, drive, and heart! Already, that makes you much stronger than Oowada and me. Never lose that spirit!”

Fujisaki smiled shyly, and then started jogging again.

“I… I’ll try!”

Sakura mirrored Fujisaki with a kind smile of her own. Ahead of them, Mondo was shouting back down from the third floor.

“I can… still… keep going…!!! I’m doin’ another rep!” The biker bellowed passionately.

Sakura, however, knew better from the way his breathing had intensified even more.

“If you are up for sparring with me afterwards, by all means…” The Ultimate Fighter smirked again as it suddenly got very quiet upstairs.

“…”

“That’s what I thought…”

It was her duty to watch over her new training partners… She would not fail them, like she had Asahina. But she would also not let the past hang over her… because there was so much more to live for.

~*~

The door to the archive creaked open, and Celes immediately clapped the folder shut and slid it back into its place on the shelf.

“Hmph. So it **was** you who took the bait… I was hoping for those two upstarts, Kirigiri or Naegi…”

Celes turned around, beaming pleasantly at the scion.

“Why, Togami-kun… I haven’t the foggiest idea what you’re talking about~…”

Togami crossed his arms, glaring at the gambler shrewdly.

“There’s no need for ‘hands in the cookie jar’ niceties… You’ve seen the file.”

Celes folded her hands under her chin and continued beaming innocently.

“I merely needed to check on something… After all, you were doing a rather poor poker face yourself, misleading everyone like that.”

Togami smirked snidely.

“I never lied about **that** , and you know it… Is it **my** fault if those plebeians scrutinize each other on a baseless witch hunt? Monokuma’s bribe was a joke, so I merely spiced things up.”

Celes twirled a lock of hair around her finger disinterestedly, turning away slightly.

“Except there’s very few fools left to scare with tactics such as that… Yamada drools over that laptop, and Kuwata is lost in his own lust. Enoshima, too, is hyper-focused on Naegi of all people…” Celes sighed exasperatedly. “The others are not fools. Idealists, but not fools.”

Togami snorted, turning on his heel. Clearly, he didn’t hold her assessment in high regard.

“Well, I scared you enough to take the bait. Let’s see what you do with this information.” Having spoken his piece, Togami stalked out of the archives. The gambler’s eyes narrowed caustically at his retreating back.

~*~

Two days had passed since Monokuma gave them the third incentive. Nobody was murdered. No one seemed like they were going to surrender to Monokuma again. They were all getting along…

They all should have expected a bigger domino to be tipped over and throw everything into disarray… Monokuma hated being denied.

“Heyyy, buckaroos~!” Monokuma greeted the survivors in the cafeteria, during their next breakfast meeting. His tone was chipper and upbeat. It was still the ten of them meeting up every morning, Togami refusing to show up. Still, ten of them in one place was more than enough for the sadistic robot bear, apparently.

Not surprising, his uninvited appearance elicited groans and threatening growls.

“The fuck you want now, bastard?!” Mondo groused.

“Can’t give us a damn break…” Leon grumbled, running a hand through his hair in irritation.

Monokuma took offense to that.

“ **Hey**!” The bear shouted in outrage, paws raised up. “I go to all the trouble of giving ya more green for your buck, and this is the thanks I get?!”

“More green…?” Sayaka echoed in confusion. Beside her, Makoto frowned in worry.

“Y-You mean more money…?” Fujisaki asked in concern, fearful this might shatter the peace they’d painstakingly built up.

The poor programmer had never been more right and more wrong.

“Not… exactly~…” Monokuma teased as he patted his belly contentedly. “You see, I just remembered! All the money in the world means nothin’ when you got no one to share it with! Am I right?!”

Makoto’s brow furrowed at the seeming change in course of the incentive.

“That’s…” He trailed off, not really sure he wanted to agree with the bear when he clearly had something up his sleeve. Junko didn’t hesitate, though.

“Yeah! Why would we wanna kill everyone else here?! We’re friends now!”

… Not entirely true, since they all had different values and interests… But they were working on it! That’s the part Makoto clung to.

Monokuma just nodded sagely at the fashionista’s claim.

“Right, right, right… Righto!” Monokuma raised a paw emphatically. “I see the problem, clear as day! I’m not a selfish bear, y’know?! You all wanna escape this place **together**! Well, while Despair Entertainment can’t allow you **all** to escape… An exception can be made just this once!”

Wide eyes, pale skin, and gaping mouths seemed to be the general consensus when it came to reacting to what Monokuma was implying. The only real holdouts were Sakura, Kyoko, and Celes, who were all carefully neutral.

“… Exception…?” Sakura repeated, nonplussed. Monokuma nodded excitedly, giggling with glee.

“While we can’t let ya all outta the nuthouse, as your Headmaster I can assert this with absolute authority!” Monokuma raised his paw again victoriously. “If you succeed in murdering one of your little buddies, I’ll let you take someone with ya! A ‘buy one get one free’ bargain! Completely free of charge, no need to read the fine print! They don’t even have to participate as an accomplice! This is the only time I’ll allow it, though, so ya better hurry~!”

As Monokuma chortled and took his leave while they were all dumbfounded, Makoto’s face had gone completely ashen. Looking around the table, he couldn’t help noticing so many of the others were also looking around with caution and suspicion. All of that bonding… Now even that was turning against them. Money? Easy enough to ignore and push to the back of your mind.

… But securing someone else’s life? At the cost of everyone else’s?

“ **Fuck**. **ing**. **Hell**!” Mondo roared as he punched the table in understandable frustration. “ **Please** tell me we’ve learned our damn lesson by now…!”

Language aside, Makoto could perfectly sympathize with the biker. They’ve already seen two murders; both of them were rather desperate affairs and done in the heat of the moment. This new incentive, however…

… This might actually push them over the edge into true premeditated murder.

A scoff came from Celes’s corner of the table.

“Have **we** learned our lesson? Truly? Who’s the loose cannon here that drove Ishimaru to commit murder?” The gambler callously asked. Makoto winced as Sayaka and Junko narrowed their eyes at the gambler. “We all know who’s likely going to bite the bullet with this motive… After all, he hasn’t exactly been making ‘friends’ here...”

Sober understanding washed over them all, save for Kirigiri who looked to have already suspect as much if the pensive look on her face was any indication as she cupped her chin and stared down at the table.

Sayaka nervously ran a hand through her hair.

“He’s… even if he is cruel, no one would kill Togami-kun… right…?”

“Oh, and I suppose it’s more likely one of **us** will actually die?” Celes snapped back sarcastically. “Think about it carefully. If one of **us** died, it would be easy to deduce which remaining group of ‘friends’ was more likely to commit murder… And which of those ‘friends’ had enough resolve for murder. Togami is friend to no one, and thus, anyone can benefit. It is a zero-sum game.”

A baseball had formed in Makoto’s stomach by now, making him nauseous and queasy. He… didn’t want to go through this again. He **hated** doubting his friends… He hated that Monokuma had found a way to twist even their bonds against them…

Makoto wished they had more time to just… talk things out…

But this was the Killing Game. Time was not on their side.

~*~

One day later, after another stressful wakeup call from Monokuma and some bizarre events that followed, Makoto found himself falling to his knees in a sea of blood. Only Sayaka was with him at the time, and she was still standing in the doorway in horror, suppressing her scream with a hand over her mouth.

Aside from the pool of blood and the hammer that lay nearby, there really was only one eye-catching thing in the physics’ prep room.

The body of Byakuya Togami, a massive spray of blood covering his head and hair, not moving an inch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun-dun-dunnn~ 
> 
> I honestly wanted to start the chaos of the investigation with this chapter, but then I thought better of it. Instead I chose to take a leaf out of Chapter 5's book, and flash-forward for a cliffhanger. We'll be getting to the meat of it in the next chapter, so stay tuned. 
> 
> ... And do trust me, at least a little. I DO have a plan. I'm not so unimaginative that I'd completely reuse Chapter 3's twists and turns. Maybe use the details as window dressing... maybe keep certain things eerily similar... But that's part of the charm of Danganronpa~... Mysteries, mysteries, mysteries... n____n I really wanted to set up a murder like this - literally anyone can be a suspect, because they all have people they're attached to. The only real exceptions are maybe Makoto and Byakuya... But even then, you never know~...


	11. Chapter 3, Part 4: A Next Generation Legend! Stand Tall, Galactic Hero!

_He found her in the garden, one of her favorite haunts. They all gravitated to certain areas once the Headmaster had sealed them inside the school, and the garden was an area she frequented quite a bit. Yamada had set up one of her ornate tables there, covered by a frilly cloth and a tea set on top of it. Ishimaru had a coronary about it, citing that they should leave the classrooms – even the garden – in pristine condition for when Hope’s Peak reopens its doors, that they should not renovate in the slightest… but the hall monitor was summarily ignored because what else was there to do but get comfy while they waited out the Tragedy?_

_Togami shrewdly noted that Yamada had even begun to trim a hedge into Ludenberg’s likeness at her unreasonable request – quite an ugly attempt, considering gardening was **not** one of Yamada’s specialties, but what else could he do but obey – but he was not here for trivialities. _

_“Ludenberg.” The heir droned as he approached the table. He spoke in a way that demanded absolute attention, but of course because it was Celes, she regarded him like he had just casually asked her about the weather._

_“Ah, Togami-kun~… Would you care for some tea? Naegi-kun brewed some, and it’s still quite fresh.” She folded her hands beneath her chin and beamed pleasantly. If he was a lesser man, Togami would have rolled his eyes. Yamada may have been the devout slave, but Naegi was the only one allowed to brew her tea… And like a doormat, the luckster allowed Celes to walk all over him when it came to being her ‘knight’, even when that meant bringing tea up from the kitchen all the way to the garden._

_Togami could only imagine the hassle Naegi had to go through. It was a chore not getting run over by Sakura and Aoi who were charging up and down the stairs like women possessed, and that was **without** holding onto a tea set of all things. _

_“Why are you here?” Togami crossed his arms and stared the gambler in the eyes with a narrowed gaze._

_Celes arched an eyebrow at the heir’s peculiar question._

_“This garden is one of the few places of decadent beauty in this building. It is also a place unbothered by certain **others** …” Her eyes averted to the side, hands on her hips. It wasn’t that hard to deduce which of their annoying classmates she was referring to. _

_“You know that’s not what I meant.” Togami snapped. He raised a finger to his temple knowingly. “The Headmaster forced nary a single student in this place. We all consensually agreed to stay here, possibly for a very long time. I’ll ask again: Why are you here?”_

_Celes twirled a lock of hair around her finger as she adopted a disinterested look._

_“This again… You and Kirigiri are so suspicious of everyone…” The gambler tsk’ed. “Let me turn it around on you. Why are **you** here, Togami-kun? The Togami Corporation is undergoing major scrutiny and being turned upside down. Yet you are here while they need you out there. Why?”_

_Togami humphed as the gambler evaded the question. She certainly loved to make things more difficult than they had to be… But this was fine. If someone like Naegi could untangle even a portion of her web of lies, then this would be child’s play for Byakuya Togami._

_“Why indeed?” Togami crossed his arms again, smirking and chuckling. “You think bringing up the latest string of scandals will get under my skin… You’re as deluded as that fanfic writer you love to boss around so much. No matter what allegations they raise against the Togami Corporation, no matter the ‘lasting’ damage they do to the Togami family name… I will eventually leave this school. And when I do, the Togami Corporation will rise like a phoenix from the ashes. All of these witch hunters will have nothing on me, because my record will be perfectly unblemished and without scandal. I know all the tricks and gimmicks that my family has tried so far, so I know from a business standpoint what works and what doesn’t. I know which lines to cross and when to cross them. Moreover, I have Hope’s Peak’s legendary reputation to add further kindling to the flames of my brilliance! Why am I here? Because my unblemished innocence saves the Togami name from being lost to the annals of history. Because my predecessors reaped exactly what they sowed, and I have no part in it.”_

_Finished with his impassioned speech, Togami turned a shrewd look on the gambler again._

_“You, on the other hand, have everything to lose by being in here. All your hard-earned riches from those suckers’ bets. The connections you built up piece by piece. Even those precious castles in Europe that you fawn over… with everything going on, even they might be laid siege to. So why bother staying here when your interests are in jeopardy?”_

_Celes’s face remained poised and disinterested as she held a hand over her mouth out of seeming boredom. It was a few moments before she spoke up again._

_“… I see. So that is how you view yourself… and me. This has been very informative.” To Togami’s ire, the gambler beamed innocently again, hands folded under her chin. “As full of holes as your own plans are, even your own observations of me are… lacking. At least Kirigiri was clear-headed and open-minded enough to not allow assumptions to rule her thinking. You see the forest for the trees, Togami, but that is nothing to be ashamed about~… I am sure anyone could make the same mistake…”_

_Togami’s hand curled into a fist as he held it at his side, gritting his teeth at the gambler._

_“What are you talking about?” The heir demanded heatedly. Celes merely giggled at his expense._

_“It’s no fun if I spoil the game for you by just giving you the answer. You’re too proud to accept anything less than working things out on your own. After all, you’re used to proving your superiority to everyone else; this is but another gauntlet thrown down. Something to tide you over while you wait to be released into the world again…”_

_The heir clenched his teeth at her mocking tone. The nerve of this wench._

_“I swear, if this is just about your ‘knight’s’ decision to remain here… because you can’t be bothered to just pluck another peasant off the streets… I will never understand how you can throw away all your resources for one disposable errand boy! Of course Naegi is a step up from most commoners, but it remains unchanged that he is **plain**! What’s one average boy versus years of savings and connections? It’s positively **wasteful**!”_

_Togami wasn’t sure what it was, perhaps it was that pleasant grin stretching a little too thin… But something in Celes seemed to snap at his words. If he bought into Hagakure’s insane ramblings, there’d be a dark aura around Celes as well._

_… Btu that was absolutely ludicrous. So Togami dismissed the absurd notion._

_“That is your problem, Togami-kun…” The gambler’s cold, sharp words cut him down the bone with the edge that was in her tone. “You think because of all your victories, you’re worthy of judging the true value of things. That if we’re not all vying for ‘the top’, like you, it’s a waste of a life…”_

_Celes’s cold, unyielding eyes met Togami’s own unwavering ones._

_“Yet all the wealth and power in the world is rather pointless if you have no one to share it with… Someone you can trust with few exceptions. Suddenly, all that **effort** to reach the top by your lonesome seems rather **wasteful** , don’t you think?”_

~*~

Sayaka shivered as her eyes landed on the set of knives on the wall. She hugged herself reflexively and backed away slowly. She’d just gone to the kitchen for a snack before the cafeteria shut down for the night.

_‘It should be simple now, right?’_ A simpering voice echoed in the back of her mind. _‘You hesitated last time because there was so much uncertainty, what with the unclear rules and everything, but now you have a ticket out of here with **him**! Hell, it should be even **easier** now because that other guy’s wrapped around your finger! Just kill that perv, and you and **he** are in the clear… No one left to threaten him because they’ll all be dead…’_

… No one except the Puppetmaster. And they were the real threat to begin with.

“I… I’d better spend the night with Naegi-kun again…” Sayaka mumbled under her breath as she scurried out of the kitchen, having lost her appetite. She had a chance, yes, but the risks were still too great. Naegi-kun and Kirigiri would puzzle out the murder… and then she’d end up breaking his heart once it got out she was the killer… Even if she got away with it, Naegi-kun would never forgive her for sacrificing their friends.

… Come to think of it, neither would her own friends. Her idol group… her fans…

Soundproof rooms might sound great on paper, but they were more trouble than they were worth. Being left alone to her thoughts in this stressful environment did not make Sayaka happy. Naegi-kun was her only barrier against them. He was an unwavering pillar she could cling to. Warm, steady, and loyal…

… Not to mention Naegi-kun was worried sick about this latest motive tearing them all apart. Sayaka needed to support him in these stressful times now more than ever.

~*~

Fujisaki’s brow knitted in concern as he looked up at Junko after Sayaka nervously left the cafeteria.

“… Huh? Junko, are you okay?” The programmer asked nervously at the face Junko was making as her eyes trailed the idol’s departure.

… But then, as if he’d imagined it, Junko’s frown and narrowed eyes disappeared with a few owlish blinks and a Cheshire grin aimed at the programmer.

“Haaah…? ‘Course I’m okay! Why wouldn’t I be~?” The fashionista waved off Fujisaki’s concern airily, grin never wavering.

On the other side of Fujisaki, Oowada snorted in disbelief.

“Maybe ‘cause you couldn’t take your eyes off Maizono even when she was outta sight in the kitchen? You really think Maizono would try somethin’ after everything?”

Junko crossed her arms and tilted her head exaggeratedly.

“Whaaat?! I totes wasn’t doing that! You’re seeing things!”

Mondo just stared at the fashionista dubiously.

“… Girls are weird.”

“And that smartass mouth is why you’re still single~!”

“ **Hey**!”

~*~

Sakura crossed her arms and frowned thoughtfully.

“… Well, if you’re sure…”

Makoto scratched the back of his head nervously.

“Y-Yeah… I mean, I get your intentions, just… I don’t wanna keep you up every night and get no sleep at all…” The luckster smiled wryly at the fighter. “… Not to mention that the guard duty might set everyone on edge even more… Let’s just… leave it alone for one night, and see how it goes.”

Sakura turned slightly away from Makoto as she hummed, deep in thought.

“We could bring in Oowada in on it, as well, if lack of sleep is a pressing issue… I’m sure he’d be happy to help. We could even rotate the guard duty a few hours every night, to ensure both of us are active every night, and thus minimize suspicion of an agenda.”

Makoto just shook his head again, frowning.

“I… I get that, and I know Oowada would definitely be up for it… Again…” He trailed off uncertainly.

“Such a guard duty would only be effective if you were sure everyone was in their rooms every night.” A new voice spoke up, surprising the luckster and fighter. They turned around and found Kirigiri standing there, cupping her chin thoughtfully. “The curfew would need to be enforced strictly and watched. I could help with that.”

“K-Kirigiri…!” Makoto blurted out in shock, still not sure how he felt about stressing their friends out even more. The mysterious girl merely smiled reassuringly at him.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. You don’t have to enforce anything you don’t want to, Naegi-kun, but this could save lives. Remember, not everyone views the world as you do.”

Makoto looked down dejectedly, balling his hands lightly into fists.

“I… I know… It’s just, Monokuma would do something about it. Whether it be a new rule, or some extra incentive… He’d meddle! And if he enforced a new rule, we’d be powerless against it!”

Both girls went quiet as the luckster brought up this point. Sakura nodded slowly after a few moments.

“… This is true.” The fighter murmured, voice clearly troubled.

Kirigiri sighed lightly, running a hand through her lilac hair.

“Monokuma would have to be careful to not let it limit our investigation of the school, since that’s one of his rules too, but he would probably find a way to word it just so… You’re most likely right.” The mysterious girl breathed another sigh. “… I’ll still leave my door open. At least that will give us the chance to respond promptly if something does happen…”

Sakura grunted in affirmation.

“It… may be our best bet…” Sakura wished she could do the same, but with Togami knowing her secret...

Makoto smiled wryly at the two girls, rubbing the back of his head again sheepishly.

“Let’s believe in everyone! Monokuma wants to tear that trust down… and we can’t let him win!”

Hoping for the best and preparing for the worst… Sometimes, it felt like that was all they could do in this nightmare. But no matter what, they couldn’t lose that flicker of hope that they would make it out alive. Together.

… They just couldn’t.

~*~

“Naegiii… It’s rising~!” Makoto mumbled in his sleep, troubled by the voice, but otherwise didn’t wake up to the initial call. Monokuma giggled, paws over his mouth. “The flag in your pants! It’s riiising~!”

Despite it all, Makoto fell for the meddlesome bear’s antics, hook, line, and sinker.

“Bwuh?!” Makoto blushed heavily as he bolted upright on the floor, hands moving to cover in-between his legs. He dared to glance over at the idol, who was also now awake and staring at him from the bed, faintly blushing herself. It didn’t take long to figure out he was played like a fiddle, and he glowered at the bear grouchily, moving his hands away slowly. “What do you want now…?”

Monokuma rubbed the back of his head bashfully.

“You mean aside from making sure my students weren’t getting too ‘extracurricular’~?” The bear giggled again at getting a growl from the luckster. “Playing the tsundere card isn’t gonna work on me, bub! I’ve seen those **looks** you two give each other! Just hump each other and get it over with already!”

Makoto considered asking Sayaka for the pillow to throw at Monokuma, but the bear would likely dodge it… Not to mention, he was too flustered by the sadistic bear’s perverted commentary to do much of anything but blush up a storm. If he’d exchanged a look with the idol, he would’ve seen she wasn’t faring much better.

“S-Stop s-screwing around…!” Was all Makoto could get out, flustered as he was.

Monokuma lowered his arms and just **stared** at the luckster.

“… But I thought that’s what you two were doing?”

“ **What do you want**?!” Makoto bellowed out with a little more force than necessary. His cheeks were on fire now.

“Hey, hey, it’s cool~!” The bear rubbed the back of his head again, seemingly blushing. “You guys got your kink, and your friends have theirs! I think one of them might even be dead by now! **Kiiinky** ~!”

… And just like that, mortified embarrassment transitioned to dread. There went that baseball in his stomach again…

“Wh… What are you talking about?!” Makoto asked in alarm. Monokuma just hummed, tilting his head cutely.

“Haven’t you learned by now, Hopeboy? Finding that out is **your** job! I am but your humble, unbiased gamemaster!” With that, the bear laughed and took his leave.

Makoto and Sayaka exchanged a worried look before hurrying off to the cafeteria. That was usually the best place to start.

~*~

Sakura regarded everyone after Leon and Junko brought up the last of the pack, for now.

“… Eight? While I am relieved that most of us are accounted for, three people missing is still… troubling…” The fighter’s voice rumbled with worry.

Leon crossed his arms in thought.

“Well… I’m not convinced Togami would have shown up, even if something is going on. He seemed pretty excited about that rivalry with Genocide Jack thing!”

Junko groaned.

“Ugh! Why’s he gotta be such a pain in the ass?! Yamada’s probably gullible enough to fall for his tricks, and Celes not being here is just **weird**!”

Kirigiri ran a hand through her hair calmly.

“We should split up. Three missing people, and three floors to explore, that’s a lot of ground to cover.”

Mondo’s hand twitched agitatedly.

“We should at least search in pairs… If something’s up, we’ve got some vulnerable people here if they search alone!” At this, Fujisaki looked down in shame, but Mondo did his best to shoot the programmer a reassuring glance.

Junko scoffed, a little unimpressed.

“Well, **somebody’s** optimistic… But I guess that’s fair. With Monokuma’s rules, up to two people can die, right?”

Sayaka nodded slowly.

“Y-Yeah… Though, I think a serial killing would leave a lot more clues, so there doesn’t seem like a lot to gain from it, unless you really hated two people…”

“Not unless you make it appear the two killed each other,” Kirigiri reasoned stoically. “But yes, two bodies does produce at least twice the amount of evidence…”

Mondo growled impatiently.

“Enough about that shit! I’ll take Fujisaki and check out the first floor!”

Sakura hummed thoughtfully.

“Well, you won’t have to check the dorms’ side of the first floor. Just to be safe, I inspected the garbage disposal, the pantry, the laundry room, and the sauna shortly after I was woken up. I wanted to be sure we wouldn’t miss those areas, only to find out whatever incident transpired there.”

Fujisaki poked his cheek, deep in thought.

“I-I’ll still double-check those areas, just in case there’s any clues…”

Mondo shrugged nonchalantly.

“Makes sense. We’ll also make Oogami’s word more credible if we check ‘em out.”

Leon ran a hand through his hair lazily, grinning at the pop idol.

“Hey~! Wanna partner up? I’ll protect ya if something comes up!”

Sayaka smiled wryly at the baseball star.

“… Thank you, Kuwata-kun, but I promised to be Naegi-kun’s Ultimate Assistant!” The idol’s pleasant beam caused Makoto to blush, though he missed the slight reserved nature of her tone. To be fair, even if he had, he wouldn’t have minded that she wanted to partner up with him.

Leon’s face became sour at being rejected so quickly, but he respected the idol’s wishes. Junko rolled her eyes and picked at her nails dully.

“Don’t look so down, Romeo! I’ll go with you and check out the second or third floor. Whichever you want.”

The baseball star sure seemed to get a second wind at the fashionista wanting to go with him, grinning like he’d won the lottery and rubbing the back of his head bashfully. But because he was so pleased with himself, he did miss the small sigh Sayaka released as she watched him. But before he could open his mouth to choose which floor they’d take, Kyoko cut him off.

“I suggest two groups investigate the third floor since it’s large enough. Oogami and I will take the second floor.”

Leon scowled at the choice being taken away from him, but it’s not like he particularly cared, considering his search partner. Makoto rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“I guess that leaves the third floor for us, too. We should hurry.”

With their elected leader’s encouragement, they all set out anxiously. Monokuma strongly hinted that someone had died… But they held out hope that just maybe, they could possibly save that person. Any other incident would be preferable to another Class Trial.

~*~

When they arrived at the third floor, Makoto and Leon’s pairs hadn’t split off yet. The reason for that was simple.

“I… I was attacked by a madman!” Celes informed her classmates as she cradled one of her arms and sported some light bruises on her face. She was in the rec room. Nearby, a colorful hammer labelled “Justice Hammer #1” lay on the ground.

… Troubling, but simple, nevertheless. Who would turn their backs on a friend who was clearly attacked? The investigation could continue once they were sure Celes was fine.

“A… madman?” Leon repeated, more than a bit bewildered. Celes growled waspishly.

“Well, I didn’t know who he was, so what else could I call him but a madman?!” She pointed at the hammer on the floor. “He attacked me with… that…”

Sayaka’s brow knitted in concern.

“Wh-Why don’t you know who they were? Did they attack you from behind?”

Celes shook her head.

“No. They… they were in some sort of bizarre costume! At first I assumed they might have been Genocide jack, but… I am fairly certain that notorious serial killer had hammers like **that** …” The gambler spat out distastefully, glaring at the hammer.

“A costume?” Makoto echoed in disbelief. Did the storage room have costumes?

Celes growled again, but this time with less bite to it.

“I don’t know how else to describe it, except it was blue, and obscured their form… I **did** take a picture of them, but…” She trailed off, glancing behind the chair closer to the locker of the rec room. They peeked behind it and found Yamada’s old camera smashed to pieces. Celes gritted her teeth, massaging her arm again. “But… that is not important…! Yamada is still in danger!”

Leon crossed his arms and stared in disbelief at the gambler.

“Yams? What’s up with him?”

Celes panted before planting herself down on a chair to catch her breath.

“He… Yamada heard my cries for help, and he tried to stop the madman! However, the madman overpowered him and dragged him off… I… don’t know where he ran off with Yamada. I wasn’t in any state to chase after them.”

Junko frowned thoughtfully while crossing her arms.

“So… Does that mean Togami’s the madman, since he’s the only one unaccounted for, besides Yamada?”

Leon growled in anger.

“I wouldn’t put it past that bastard! Probably thought this would make the game more ‘exciting’!”

Makoto frowned while still stroking his chin, deep in thought.

“No, wait, hold on a minute… Celes, when was this attack?” Because they sure hadn’t seen anything while coming up to the third floor, and that at the very least narrowed down where Yamada could be.

That is, assuming the attack took place recently. And they should never make assumptions when it came to these murders… if there **had** been a murder yet…

“It… must have been around 6:30.” Celes slowly replied. “It was definitely half an hour before the morning announcement.”

Sayaka’s frown deepened.

“… That’s not good… That means almost anyone could be the madman, and they would have a whole half hour to move about before we were all alerted to what happened!”

Seven possible suspects, since Celes was attacked, Yamada was reportedly dragged away, and she and Naegi-kun served as each other’s alibi for nighttime. Since the attacker overpowered Yamada, that possibly ruled out Fujisaki, as well. But six potential suspects was still about half their remaining class.

Junko sighed, picking at her nails again.

“Look, we can talk about that later! Why don’t we get Celes to the infirmary, and keep looking for Yamada and Togami?”

Celes’s brow furrowed as Togami’s name came up again.

“Togami…? You said he was missing as well… But then again, considering his nature, it is natural he would be missing as well. I can… make it to the infirmary by myself!”

At seeing the gambler attempt to get up from the chair, and only succeed when Junko lent a hand, Leon scoffed.

“Yeah, right… Enoshima ‘n I can get you back there. Maizono, Naegi, you guys wanna keep searching the third floor?”

Makoto gave a steely nod as answer. When they all exited the rec room, they heard a scream from downstairs.

“ **AAAAAHHH**...!”

Everyone tensed at the scream. It was definitely Yamada. But before anyone could say anything about it, Celes suddenly pointed down the hall, which would veer off toward the art room and eventually the physics lab.

“Th… There…! I swear, I just saw a shadow…!” Celes hissed, gripping at her arm. “I... I swear that was **him** …! The madman!”

Makoto frowned and his brow furrowed in confusion.

“R-Really…? But… that would mean…”

Leon growled furiously, holding up a fist in outrage.

“It **was** Togami, that bastard!” He looked to the idol again. “Change of plans! Me ‘n Naegi will go after him, you girls take Celes to the infirmary!”

Junko rolled her eyes.

“Nice try, but you’re partnered with **me** , remember?!”

Leon looked to the fashionista in disbelief.

“You serious?! This isn’t even about **that**!” The baseball star huffed. “If Togami attacked Yamada, he’s a threat! We can’t risk you girls!”

Sayaka’s face became stern as she faced the baseball star.

“… I’m going with Naegi-kun, Kuwata. Don’t look down on me just because I’m a girl! I’ve done plenty of workouts for my career!”

Leon looked like he was about to say something, but then Makoto cut him off.

“Kuwata, let’s just stick to the pairs! Maizono and I will be fine! Just… get Celes to safety!”

Though Leon was still against it, he slung one of Celes’s arms around his shoulders and began helping her down the stairs, Junko mirroring him on the other side. With that out of the way, Makoto and Sayaka shared a look, nodding at each other, before dashing off down the hall toward where Celes spotted the shadow.

~*~

Makoto found himself falling to his knees in a sea of blood. Sayaka was still standing in the doorway in horror, suppressing her scream with a hand over her mouth. They’d checked the art room first, and after finding no one in that room or the attached storage room, they’d gone to investigate the physics lab and the attached prep room. The prep room being left open ajar had made them morbidly curious, so they went to check it out… Aside from the pool of blood and the colorful hammer that lay nearby, there really was only one eye-catching thing in the physics’ prep room.

The body of Byakuya Togami, a massive spray of blood covering his head and hair, not moving an inch.

Makoto almost fully collapsed from shock, but kept himself propped up by his hands; even if they got drenched in the puddle of blood, that didn’t matter to Makoto. What truly… mattered…

“T... Togami…!” Makoto let out in a choked gasp. No matter how long he looked at the fallen heir, however, the sight didn’t change. The oozing, sticky sensations around his fingers and legs didn’t vanish, either.

He was… He was really dead.

The only unnatural thing about it was that Togami still had his glasses on, but, Makoto figured it had to have been possible to hit somebody and **not** knock off their glasses… After all, there was no other way to explain away the massive amounts of blood.

Eventually, the luckster clambered to his feet shakily. He was grateful Sayaka was there to steady him.

“W… We have to tell the others!” Makoto desperately cried out. The more he stared at Togami, the more hysterical he felt himself becoming. The body discovery announcement wasn’t going off, but… Oh… that’s right… they needed at least one more person to confirm it…!

“Let’s hurry!” Sayaka encouraged him, gripping his hand firmly before pulling him along and both started running full tilt.

The second floor. That’s where they knew some of the others were. Kirigiri and Oogami. At least them, if not Yamada, too. However, when they arrived on the second floor, they only found Oogami in the library, seemingly guarding another crime scene.

Based on another colorful hammer laying nearby – this one labelled “Justice Hammer #2” – and the blood splatter on the floor, that didn’t seem too farfetched.

“Hmm? Naegi and Maizono?” The fighter raised an eyebrow at their arrival.

“Wh-What happened here?!” Makoto let out breathlessly from the mad dash they took to get to the second floor. Sakura narrowed her eyes angrily.

“Yamada was attacked! He claims some madman struck him, and then fled… Given that it took me a couple of minutes to reach here from the pool area, I can believe that. It had to have been Togami. I saw Enoshima and Kuwata helping Celes to the infirmary, so we can rule her out.”

Sayaka quickly shook her head.

“N-No! It couldn’t have been him! Togami-kun is…” She trailed off, the shock still wearing on her mind as well. Sakura’s brow furrowed in confusion.

“Togami is what? Did you find Togami?”

Makoto looked around carefully, still trying to straighten out these incidents in his head.

“H-Hey… Where’s Kirigiri? I was hoping she’d be with you…”

“Kirigiri chose to split up once we reached the second floor,” Sakura explained. “I took the pool area, and she chose to search… elsewhere. I have not seen her. Do you suspect her, though? Togami seems more suspicious, since we haven’t seen him yet…”

Makoto became frantic, the more he heard. Everything was so disorderly!

“N-No! Maizono’s right! We found Togami, but he’s… dead! We found him **after** Yamada made the scream, so he couldn’t have been the one to attack Yamada!”

Sakura reeled back at the revelation of Togami’s death.

“D... Dead?! This cannot be! Show me!”

And the luckster and idol were more than ready to do that. However, when they left the library, a strange cry came from downstairs.

“ **DOOORYAAAH**!!!”

“That was Celes!” Sayaka realized, once the scream ended. The three took off in a sprint to the infirmary, where Celes, Enoshima, Kuwata, Oowada, and Fujisaki were. No Kirigiri or Yamada.

“What now?!” Kuwata cried out, palming his forehead in aggravation. Apparently, he’d gone to fetch Oowada and Fujisaki since they hadn’t been updated since the investigation started.

Celes gripped her aching arm and gritted her teeth.

“I… Enoshima and I had stepped out for just a moment! Yamada had been sent down here, since he could still walk even though he was injured. But when we came back, he was gone, and… that…!” She pointed at the colorful hammer lying on the floor, the words “Justice Hammer #3” painted on it.

Junko’s hand twitched angrily.

“I just… needed to stop by the bathroom real quick! Celes figured she could clean herself up, so she came with! Jeez! What is going on?!”

Makoto groaned at hearing this.

“Not Yamada, too…!”

Upon the luckster speaking up, eyes were on him, and everyone but Sakura and Sayaka grew concerned at the sight of blood splatter on his legs and hands.

“Naegi! Were you attacked?!” Mondo shouted angrily, raising a fist in outrage. Junko and Celes looked similarly upset at the mere notion. Leon scowled and Fujisaki shivered in fright.

Makoto looked down at himself and sagged.

“N-No! No! Don’t worry about me! I only got it on me…!” The luckster spluttered unintelligibly before reeling himself in a bit. “Listen! We can’t keep putting this off! Togami’s up on the third floor, and he’s **dead**! We just need one more person for the body discovery announcement!”

Celes held a knuckle up to her mouth nervously.

“… That is not the only problem, however! If Yamada was taken, that means Kirigiri did it! She’s the only one of us it could possibly be!”

Makoto, Sayaka, and Chihiro paled at this, while Junko, Mondo, and Leon gnashed their teeth in outrage. Sakura crossed her arms, brow furrowed calmly.

“… That isn’t confirmed yet. We… must confirm Togami’s murder – since we only need one more person, I will do it. The rest of you search for Yamada and Kirigiri.”

Leon gave the fighter a shaky smile.

“Y-You? You’ll probably tamper with the crime scene!”

If the fighter’s glare at the baseball star was any indication, she was not amused. Celes, however, brought them out of their gridlock.

“We don’t have the time! Every moment wasted is one that could bring Yamada closer to death! Everyone in favor of Oogami going to find the body?” Everyone but Kuwata and Enoshima raised their hands. “… You, too, Enoshima?”

“Well, Kuwata kinda has a point!” The fashionista shrugged nonchalantly, to which Mondo and Makoto groaned. Sayaka shot the fighter a sympathetic look.

“Well, why don’t you guys go up to the third floor with her? Naegi-kun, me, Oowada, and Fujisaki can still search the lower floors!”

Celes gritted her teeth anxiously.

“In my state, I am better off staying here anyway… I… I’ll bar the infirmary door, somehow!”

Nobody liked the thought of leaving Celes to fend for herself, but they needed every able person to look for Yamada and Kirigiri. Besides, things would start to clear up when Togami’s body was officially announced by Monokuma… The main concern at this point was ensuring Yamada’s safety. That was all that mattered.

~*~

… Things did not get better. If anything, things only grew worse.

They’d spent at least five minutes looking for Yamada and Kirigiri up on the second floor when Enoshima breathlessly came running to them, informing them that Togami’s body had disappeared. The bloodstain was still in the prep room indicating Togami **had** been in there at some point… Well, the bloodstain and the hammer. But still, the abduction of the body was another worry to put on the pile.

Kuwata had run off to tell Oowada, Fujisaki, and Celes about the body’s disappearance. With that in mind, Enoshima and Oogami paired off to search the second floor and below, since Naegi and Maizono had the third floor’s classrooms covered.

“Not in here, either…” Sayaka murmured as they scoped out the second classroom.

“I don’t get it… With everyone looking, someone should have seen something!” Makoto lamented, sagging down in a chair, feeling absolutely exhausted from all the running round they were doing.

Sayaka sat down at the desk next to him, soothingly lacing her fingers with his.

“We’ll find them, Naegi-kun! I promise. Everything’s gonna make sense. We… We haven’t lost yet!”

At the idol’s soft, firm tone, Makoto nodded and smiled wryly.

“Y-Yeah… I know we will. I just… really wish Togami didn’t have to die! He was cold, and he was way too interested in this game for his own good, but he didn’t deserve this!”

Sayaka nodded sadly, lightly running her thumb across his knuckle soothingly.

“None of us deserve this… Whoever’s controlling Monokuma is an absolute monster!” The idol’s face broke into a bittersweet grin. “… But… If nothing else, I’m… I’m really glad you’re here, Naegi-kun. W-With me… If you weren’t, I…”

The idol looked down shamefully, knowing exactly what she would have done, by now. Makoto, at seeing the dejected look on her face, smiled reassuringly and gave her hand a squeeze for good measure.

“I’m glad you’re here, too, Maizono!” He blushed as he looked down in embarrassment at what he implied. “N-Not that I’m glad y-you’re stuck in this grizzly situation! Just… oh jeez…”

Sayaka giggled lightly at the luckster’s flustered state. He really was sweet. Even if this was all one huge nightmare with the murders and everybody suspecting each other, Sayaka was really glad she had someone that she could trust completely in here. It really made this all… bearable. And from what Makoto said, he trusted her, too.

At that thought, Sayaka’s cheeks turned a healthy pink as she smiled.

She was **really** happy she could be a lifeline for him, just as much as he was for her…

“H-Hey, guys!”

Both idol and luckster turned to the doorway of the classroom, where Junko was nervously standing. Makoto’s brow furrowed in worry.

“E-Enoshima?”

Junko motioned for the two to follow her, hurriedly.

“W-W-We found them…!”

Makoto and Sayaka paled at that. Junko was paired with Sakura, last they checked, so that could only mean…

But, why hadn’t the body discovery announcement gone off, if that was the case?

With haste, Makoto and Sayaka followed the fashionista to where… “they” had been found…

~*~

When they peeked in the art storage room, they found them, alright. The bodies of Byakuya Togami and Hifumi Yamada, lying on the floor. Togami lying on top of a blue tarp, and Yamada was face-down on the floor, but the big bloody wound on the back of his head was no mistake. He was definitely dead.

And like magic, the screen in the room gave the familiar jangle.

“A body has been discovered~! After a certain time has passed, the Class Trial will begin! … Now, get your lazy asses to the art room!”

The screen flickered off.

“…” They waited for the screen to go off a second time. After all, two bodies had been discovered. However, after several tense moments, nothing came.

“H-Huh…?” Sayaka blurted out in shock. “Wh-Where’s the other announcement?”

Sakura, who was with them, frowned and crossed her arms in concern.

“Maybe… Monokuma combined the announcements? It seems the most efficient.”

“Maybe…” Makoto muttered uncertainly.

They were not expecting a fourth voice that wasn’t Enoshima to speak up.

“I think I’ve got a better idea… There was only one body to discover.”

Everyone tensed at the cold, arrogant tone that drifted from the body on the floor. And to their complete disbelief, Togami sat up, a coy smirk on his lips.

“You sure took your time, Naegi.” He continued to speak when everyone was left speechless. Casually, the heir dusted off his suit like he hadn’t just been a lifeless husk ten seconds ago. He then looked up at Makoto with challenging eyes. “The game is afoot, wouldn’t you say?”

… Makoto had nothing to say to that. Absolutely nothing at all. This completely blindsided them.

And Togami was enjoying every moment of it.

~*~

Omake:

Sayaka grinned at the luckster mischievously.

"So... 'Flag', hmm? I seem to recall Monokuma bringing up this same phenomenon before..."

Makoto knew that his face couldn't get any redder, but he swore steam must have been coming off of it by now.

"Maizono...! I-I swear, it's nothing like that...!" The luckster knew he would die of embarrassment if any of their classmates found out... J-Just because he thought the idol was pretty didn't mean he was a... p-pervert! It was natural to think she was beautiful! Natural!

Sayaka hummed unconvincingly.

"If you say so... But honestly, out of all the guys out there? I'd be thrilled if you thought of me like that, Naegi-kun. You're... very special to me..." The idol clutched at her heart passionately.

"O-Oh... R-Really...?" The luckster stuttered out, daring to look over at the idol, despite feeling mortified this was a topic at all.

Sayaka beamed reassuringly at him.

"Of course! I feel like you're my best friend already, Naegi-kun! Even though it's just been a couple weeks." The idol chirped, and the awkwardness seemed to slip away from both of them. ... But then the idol glanced down bashfully, her own cheeks flushed pink. "I might have had... a very pleasant dream about you, once or twice since we've been here, too... So... If you ever w-wanted to... explore... I... wouldn't be opposed...!"

Makoto felt his brain shutting down from the suggestiveness and, dare he hope, a desire for such physical intimacy... With him! Of all people!

On the one hand, he knew Komaru would skin him alive if he got frisky like that with their shared hero. On the other, he was a healthy teenage boy who was prone to his baser instincts and hormones....

"... L-L-L-Let's come back to this later...! We really need to check up on everybody...!" Makoto valiantly dodged the issue before it could blow even more out of proportion.

Sayaka's hopeful smile and tone did little good for his poor heart.

"Yes... Let's..."

Wh-What did he get himself into?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *cue New World Order ost* 
> 
> I was waiting for this revelation, I really was. XD "Welp, there goes Togami. Figures." Psyyych~ 
> 
> I hadn't thought to break this investigation into two separate chapters, but the more I wrote, the more I felt it was appropriate. The Togami revelation was not something you stick casually in the middle. This is cliffhanger material right here, so I went that route. 
> 
> I hope it's still fun for everybody. :3 Yes, I did add an omake because I HAD been oh-so-tempted to pursue that teasing wakeup call scene, but felt it was inappropriate for a number of reasons, mainly related to the urgency at the time.
> 
> ... So I made it a more lighthearted extra, for anyone who enjoys a slightly pervy Naezono like I do. (... I'm not alone, am I? Because this might be awkward if so...)


	12. Chapter 3, Part 5: A Next Generation Legend! Stand Tall, Galactic Hero!

“T… Togami…?” Makoto echoed again, the revelation still processing in his mind. “You’re still alive…?”

Togami seemed disappointed by the luckster’s reactions by now as he sighed airily again.

“Your observational skills have devolved since the last trial, if you’re still stuck on that… But yes, I have not joined the idiots in the afterlife. Didn’t I tell you all before? **I will not die**.” The heir humphed, arms crossed and looking to the side with annoyance as he clicked his tongue.

Sayaka and Junko’s eyes were narrowed, and the idol’s shoulders were even trembling, like she was ready to give the heir another slap. Sakura placed a hand on Sayaka’s shoulder consolingly, but frowned at the scion.

“No one is denying your cleverness and tenacity… But, given where we found you, could you not have stopped Yamada’s killer?” The fighter rumbled lowly. She knew that Togami would not make the mistake of killing Yamada himself – not when his faked death and body’s disappearance would make him too suspicious. That did not leave him out as a key eyewitness to the murder.

Togami snorted derisively, sneering at Oogami’s clear disapproval. 

“You’re asking me if I would lift a finger to help one of you and not get anything in return? If this is the level of competency I can expect at the Class Trial, I might as well kill myself right here before Monokuma executes me with the rest of you.”

They… couldn’t really respond to that. Togami had made his stance quite clear. No matter how many times they asked, he wasn’t going to show regret or remorse. Offering help was only for his own survival, and if his attitude was any indication, he wasn’t going to give it out willingly this time. They’d have to work for it.

As if it wasn’t enough that they’d lost Yamada…

Sakura continued to hold Sayaka back from trying to throttle Togami. Junko growled in frustration. Makoto bowed his head slightly and sighed morosely. Not too long after, most of the others reached the art storage room.

“The fuck’s goin’ on…?!” Mondo growled in both apprehension and rage before recoiling at the sight of the otaku on the floor. “Yamada?!”

Beside the biker, Fujisaki cried.

“N-No…! Why him?! Wasn’t Togami…?” The programmer trailed off tearfully before his eyes panned over to the heir, who was alive and well. His brow knitted together in anguished confusion.

Behind the biker and programmer, Celes deadpanned.

“… It seems those tales were greatly exaggerated.” Celes narrowed her eyes at Togami, hands on her hips. The scion smirked back at the gambler. Behind her, Leon was frozen, arms at his sides stiff and eyes widened.

“B-But… all that blood…!” The baseball star tried to refute what they were clearly witnessing.

Togami inclined his chin arrogantly.

“Not a drop of it was mine. If you can’t figure out the trick, you’re doomed. At least try to keep the game entertaining. That goes for the rest of you! God knows I did **my** part.”

Makoto’s brow furrowed at Togami’s words. Of course there had to be a trick when there was **that** much blood… But why bring that up? Was it just Togami’s hubris again?

“Did someone say my name?!” Monokuma spoke up gleefully as he pranced into the room all smiles. He ignored the annoyed reactions from the students and stopped before Yamada’s body and raised a paw to his mouth contemplatively, tilting his head. “… Nope. He’s dead, Jim. 100%, bone-ified dead body right here, folks! You know what that means~! Ta-da!”

With a flourish, Monokuma distributed the Monokuma File 3 and patted his belly contently once he was done.

“I tell ya, you guys sure are getting into the Killing Game spirit! It took ya three murders, but I guess third time’s the charm, right?! I don’t even care if the killer makes a major blunder and reveals themselves too early! I’ll give this one a solid A+ for effort, ingenuity, and keeping me on the edge of my seat! Investigate to your hearts’ content, and I’ll see y’all at the Class Trial!” Monokuma cheered one last time before taking his leave.

All eyes were back on Togami, who scoffed at the heavy suspicion.

“There’s something you all want to say… Just say it. Get it out of the way now so we can move on.”

Mondo growled at the heir’s tone. He clenched his fist hard enough to pop it before roaring angrily.

“Alright… I think **you** did it, fucker!”

Fujisaki wrung his hands a little, trying to calm the biker down.

“Wh-Why do you say that?”

Before Mondo could reply, Celes cut in. She took heavy, precise steps until she was standing in the center of the storage room.

“It’s quite simple, really… Togami ‘dies’, and then his body goes missing… We do all that running around looking for him and Yamada, so all of us have alibis. The next thing we know? Yamada is dead, and Togami is in here with the body. This case seems pretty open-and-shut, don’t you think?”

Togami sneered at the gambler’s words. He closed his eyes and chuckled in dark amusement as his arms remained crossed.

“Of course **you** would say that… Never mind that you were one of the missing people being searched for, at one point. Or that Kirigiri is clearly not here.”

At the scion’s words, everybody looked around the room and found them to be true. Makoto’s brow’s scrunched together in confusion and worry.

_‘Kirigiri’s still missing…? What in the world happened?’_ In the end, the luckster could only speculate. After all, no one had seen the mysterious girl since she partnered off with Oogami at the start of this mess. Finding her would be a high priority… not only for the investigation, but also to ensure her safety, since there could be two murders.

Celes clicked her tongue in spite of Togami’s points.

“Say what you will, but at least people knew where I was. And I was **attacked** … So I highly doubt I was in any condition to come up here all the way from the infirmary and kill Yamada. Not to mention, that’s where Kuwata found me after the announcement went off. Isn’t that right?” She asked the baseball star pointedly. At that question, Leon straightened up and nodded quickly.

“Y-Yeah… Yeah! Damn, we might as well vote right now! With all of us coverin’ each other’s backs, there could only be one bastard that coulda done this! Am I right or what?!”

Mondo punched his palm in anticipation.

“Shit! Let’s tie this shithead up and just wait until Monokuma calls us for the trial! I might wanna pound your head in myself, but watchin’ you get your ass executed will work just fine!”

Togami narrowed his eyes at the biker.

“Lay one finger on me, and I’ll make sure you rue the day, plankton.”

Sakura crossed her arms and scowled deep in thought.

“We won’t tie you up… But we can certainly restrict your investigative rights.”

Togami’s eyebrow rose skeptically at the fighter’s assertion.

“Come again?”

Junko picked at her nails boredly, not even giving Togami the courtesy of looking at him.

“Think about it, dumbass! Even if you, somehow, don’t turn out to be the killer, you’re still all kinds of suspicious! No way we’re gonna let you contaminate the crime scene or conceal evidence!”

Mondo cracked his knuckles as the heir shot them all incredulous looks.

“No lone wolf act this time, fucker!” The biker gave a toothy, mean-spirited grin.

Several tense moments passed between those assembled. Mondo was all too eager to ‘restrain’ the heir if he chose to object, while Sakura was prepared to stop anyone who acted in haste. Celes and Junko seemed more disinterested in Togami’s reaction than anything else. And Makoto, Sayaka, Leon, and Chihiro revealed their nervousness to various degrees.

In the end, however, Togami raised a finger to his temple thoughtfully before speaking.

“… Very well, I’ll concede to your inane conditions. I’ve already seen everything there is to see, and I know the killer’s identity. I’ll even vacate the crime scene and wait by the red door with a babysitter, if it’ll make you feel better.” He pointed at them all accusingly. “But know this… I won’t be answering any questions until the trial. If you want to make me talk, I’ll only do so with Kirigiri and her alone. The rest of you are clearly too unreasonable for any ‘hints’ from me, or just plain doormats and not worth my time.” He shot scathing looks at Naegi and Fujisaki at the last comment before stalking out of the room without permission. Mondo, naturally, gave chase, howling angrily after the departing scion.

The remaining seven students exchanged looks with one another.

“… I think that could have gone better.” Makoto scratched his cheek nervously.

Junko rolled her eyes before crossing her arms apathetically.

“Really? I think that’s the most we were gonna get out of him anyway. S’not like he’s been a huge team player in the previous trials, y’know?”

Sayaka, who had reluctantly cooled her tempers for a while now, looked down in concern as well.

“Even so, I think Naegi-kun has a point – we haven’t even read the Monokuma File yet. Should we really jump the gun this early? There was a lot going on, so it’s possible someone else could have done it…”

Celes placed her hands on her hips again.

“Impossible. I will say it again – we all partnered up and bunched together when something new came up! There was hardly any times when any of us went off alone, and even at those times, we were aware of our locations. Except for Yamada’s, Kirigiri’s, and Togami’s. I ask you, who here is more suspicious than Togami, who faked his death?”

Leon crossed his arms and squeezed one eye shut tight in concentration as he tilted his head slightly.

“Mmm… I’m leaning towards Toges, but, I mean, Kirigiri off on her own is suspicious, too… Wouldn’t she hear the announcement like the rest of us? What’s more important than investigating a murder? Why ain’t she here?”

Fujisaki trembled slightly.

“I-I hope nothing bad’s happened… Wh-What if she was murdered, too?!”

Sakura frowned, deeply concerned.

“I would like to go and search for Kirigiri myself, but I am afraid with Oowada guarding Togami at the red door, I am the only one left to guard the crime scene. The rest of you should search for her and the other significant areas. We… have much ground to cover.”

Makoto cupped his chin thoughtfully.

“This room, the physics’ prep room, the rec room, and the infirmary are the main areas, I think…” He hummed a little uncertain.

“Well, the library, too…” Sayaka pointed out. “Oh! And should we investigate Yamada’s room for clues?”

Junko shrugged nonchalantly.

“I think it’s a good habit to make! The victim’s room could always have somethin’ important in it. How do we wanna split up, though? Is one person searching each area such a good idea?” The fashionista sounded doubtful.

Sakura nodded slowly.

“For now, it may be our best plan of attack… Six areas of interest, and Kirigiri has yet to be found. Pairing up may draw out the investigation, and thus risk Monokuma’s ire.”

Leon scoffed a bit in disbelief.

“Hey, I’m up for believing in Maizono, Naegi, Fujisaki and you, Oogami – but I ain’t gonna trust Celes not to conceal somethin’.”

The gambler turned on the baseball star with an arched eyebrow.

“I do beg your pardon…?”

Leon raised his hands peacefully, grinning a mite nervously.

“H-Hey, hey… Sure, you were attacked and all, but Toges still targeted you, right? I’m just sayin’ there was probably a reason for that!”

No one was too surprised when the gambler flipped Kuwata off and flew into one of her tantrums, but overall it was decided as a good idea by everybody else for Celes to have someone watching her. With Kirigiri missing and Yamada dead, they didn’t need another incident popping up.

… And because Leon had more or less volunteered for that by bringing it up in the first place…

~*~

_‘The victim was Hifumi Yamada, the Ultimate Fanfic Creator. Time of death was between 8am and 8:30am. Cause of death was due to blunt force trauma to the back of the head. Only one area of the back of the head sustained injury – no other wounds internal or external, and nothing to suggest the ingestion of drugs.’_

Makoto frowned deeper the more he read the Monokuma File over and over. He… just didn’t get it. This file told them… basically nothing. Yeah, Hifumi died sometime during the investigation, but would it have hurt to get more specific than a half hour guesstimate? And… what was with the cause of death? It didn’t specify the weapon, even though there was clearly a bloody hammer lying right next to Hifumi’s body – unmarked and unpainted.

“It would’ve been nice to know if Yamada died instantly or not, too…” Makoto scowled as he pocketed the file. The previous files, as vague as they could be, too, at least offered some helpful details. This one just seemed to like to screw with them.

Sakura hummed lowly, a few feet away from Naegi.

“It may just be the chaotic nature of this case… If Monokuma gave too much away too soon, we would be able to deduce the killer’s identity from where everyone was and what we were all doing. I… do not like it, myself. But Monokuma wants us to solve these cases, not give us the answers on a silver platter.”

Makoto rubbed the back of his neck, looking around the floor of the room.

“I know… It’s just frustrating, sorry.” The luckster noted the way Yamada was face down on the ground. Frowning, he gently lifted the boy’s head, morbidly curious if the fanfic creator had died in pain. He was surprised when lingering shards of glass fell from the glasses, most of them already on the floor. “W-Was… Did the killer smash Yamada while he was on the ground?”

It was the only theory that made sense to the luckster. If Yamada had been standing up, maybe the glasses would have been broken from how hard he was hit from behind, but not **smashed** , like these were. Carefully turning the otaku over a little more, Makoto spotted a faint wet spot on Yamada’s collar and tie. Based on its position, Makoto could only guess that it was drool. There was a faint stain on the floor underneath as well, where Yamada’s mouth would have been, so this more or less confirmed it.

“You should… probably leave the investigation of the body to Kirigiri.” Sakura intoned, sounding sympathetic to the luckster. “She is quite adept at it, and she will find things that we do not see.”

Makoto nodded his head slowly, gently putting the otaku back on the floor as they had found him.

“Y-Yeah, I know… I… I just wanted to look.” The luckster lamely responded, not getting up from his crouched position right away, eyes lingering on the plain, bloodied hammer briefly. His brows furrowed. “… Hey, wait a sec…”

The luckster’s eyes trailed up to the hammers on the wall of the storage room. He noticed several of them were missing, and they were plain like the one on the floor. Makoto jumped to his feet and made his way over to them.

“Yeah…! I knew it! I bet Celes and Yamada’s attackers used these for those ‘Justice Hammers’! They’re all different sizes.”

Sakura walked over as well and eyed them shrewdly.

“Indeed… The hammers in the library and the infirmary are about a match for the sized hammers that are missing here… Of course, I’m only giving an estimate based off my memory of the various scenes we’ve come across.”

Makoto nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, the hammer in the rec room was small enough for the small one missing here, and the big one in the physics’ prep room definitely seems like it would’ve been here. I mean, where else would the attacker get the hammers?”

Sakura crossed her arms, brow furrowed.

“Well, Togami wasn’t quite ‘attacked’… But I suppose he merely borrowed one of the hammers from here to stage his fake murder. That said, why would he go to such lengths?”

“Yeah… He even colored it like the other ‘Justice Hammers’!” Makoto frowned as he tried to reflect on it. “What’s up with that? Did Togami know who was planning a murder?”

Sakura shook her head slowly, frowning anxiously.

“I’m not sure. But, can we conclude the attacker and murderer are the same person? After all – the murder weapon here is not painted like the other hammers we’ve found.”

Makoto moaned in aggravation.

“The worst part is that we don’t even know if that was the murder weapon! It’s just the likely one.” The luckster frowned as he noticed something else. “… Hang on…”

Sakura’s eyebrows rose as Makoto went to grab one of the hammers on the wall to feel it.

“Did you notice something?”

Makoto nodded in confirmation as he gestured at it.

“Feel it for yourself! This one was washed off. Question is, why would the killer wash off a hammer when they left the murder weapon lying on the floor, supposing it is the weapon?”

Sakura’s frown deepened as she felt the same wetness Makoto had.

“… Perhaps… the killer and Yamada fought, and the killer ended up getting injured as well? The killer wouldn’t want us to find two bloodstained hammers, after all. We don’t have forensic assistance in here, but the second bloody hammer would still be evidence all the same.”

“… I guess…” Makoto mumbled as he tried to think it over, too. Something about this new finding didn’t click with the scene they came across. If the killer washed off one hammer to conceal it, why not just conceal both while they were at it?

Was this another meddling thing that Togami did? … Or was it…?

Makoto resolved to come back to it later. There was lots more to investigate. Looking back at the floor, he took note of the blue tarp and the trolley nearby. A few flecks of blood from Togami’s head were still on the tarp, reminding Naegi that the heir had been lying on it.

Makoto rubbed his chin as he thought about how a tarp would have been used; after all, while the trolley had been here in the storage room prior to the case, the tarp hadn’t been. But with the trolley in mind, it would have been possible to transport Togami to here.

“… Hey, Oogami, do you wanna help review everything we did? I think I could use a refresher.” Makoto scratched his cheek sheepishly. There wasn’t anything else he could see, so talking to Sakura was the last thing to do before checking out the other areas.

Sakura nodded in understanding.

“Sure. As I recall, eight of us met up in the cafeteria after Monokuma woke us up. The ones missing were Celes, Yamada, and Togami. We split up to go find them.”

Makoto nodded slowly.

“Right, me and Maizono paired off, Enoshima and Kuwata paired off, Oowada and Fujisaki paired off, and you and Kirigiri paired off. Me, Maizono, Enoshima, and Kuwata were checking out the third floor; you and Kirigiri checked out the second floor; and Oowada and Fujisaki covered the first floor.”

Sakura nodded in agreement at the team assignments.

“Shortly after arriving on the second floor, Kirigiri and I split up – it was her suggestion. I inspected the pool area, and she searched elsewhere.”

“Around that time, me, Maizono, Enoshima, and Kuwata found Celes in the rec room. We asked her what happened, and she said she was attacked by the madman.” Makoto contributed his team’s findings. “We only got a vague description from Celes – they were wearing some kind of costume, and used that ‘Justice Hammer #1’ as their weapon. She said Yamada stumbled on her and the madman, and tried to fight them off… But the madman overpowered him, and dragged him off. Celes tried taking a picture, but her camera was smashed… She said all of that took place at around 6:30am. After we got all of that from her, we heard Yamada’s scream from downstairs, and Celes swore she saw the madman further down the hall. Enoshima and Kuwata took Celes down to the infirmary, and me and Maizono went after the madman, thinking it was Togami – though we never saw the costumed person like Celes did…”

Sakura frowned at that.

“I see… Well, after Yamada screamed, I myself went racing in search of it, because I could tell it was close by. And I found Yamada in the library… The ‘Justice Hammer #2’ was lying on the floor, and the side of Yamada’s head was covered in blood. He claimed the madman attacked him as well. Shortly after, I decided to guide Yamada to the infirmary, and that was when I ran into Kuwata, Enoshima, and Celes. I let them take Celes and Yamada to the infirmary, and decided to stay behind to try and find any further clues to the madman’s identity in the library…”

Makoto dipped his head a little as the next memory came to mind.

“… I guess around that time, me and Maizono had tracked Togami down to the prep room, though instead of being in that costume like Celes described, he was seemingly dead. I… I feel like an idiot for not checking his pulse…”

Sakura calmly placed a hand on the luckster’s shoulder comfortingly.

“Naegi… please, anyone would have been caught off-guard by the amount of blood spilled. Your legs and hands can attest to that.”

Makoto smiled wryly as the fighter brought that up. … He really needed to wash off his hands, now that he had the time to.

“A-Anyway… Me and Maizono thought we should tell you guys, so we raced downstairs looking for you. And that’s when we found you in the library, and you told us all that stuff you just said.”

Sakura nodded in agreement.

“Right. And after we were reunited, we heard Celes scream from downstairs, alerting us to Yamada’s disappearance. Around that time, Oowada and Fujisaki were corralled by Kuwata so we could get everyone up to speed. At that time, Yamada and Kirigiri were missing, and we had yet to ‘confirm’ Togami’s body discovery announcement… I elected to go find him, and get the announcement out of the way. The rest of you stayed in your assigned teams, and Kuwata and Enoshima came with me to the third floor…”

“Me and Maizono took the second floor this time,” Makoto recalled. “Oowada and Fujisaki stayed on the first floor. I don’t know if they found anything, but me and Maizono definitely didn’t turn up much of anything… But like five minutes later, Enoshima came to find us…”

Sakura nodded again.

“Right… We discovered Togami’s body had gone missing, so Enoshima said she would round up anyone on the second floor, and Kuwata handled the first floor. You guys came up to see for yourself, and then we split up again – this time, me and Enoshima, and you and Maizono.”

Makoto looked down again, a bit ashamed.

“I know we said we’d handle the classrooms after seeing nothing in the rec room, but I… became disheartened after we didn’t find anything, and me and Maizono stayed in a classroom for a bit, talking. I’m not sure how much time passed either, I’m sorry…”

Sakura shook her head and patted his shoulder comfortingly again.

“You have nothing to apologize for. The investigation wasn’t exactly proceeding smoothly on our side, either. Enoshima and I found nothing in the library or pool areas. And when we were about to check out the first floor again, we ran into Fujisaki and Oowada, who were informed by Kuwata that Celes was holed up in the infirmary and was not allowing anyone in. Kuwata had then gone to look for the others, they said, but I do not know his exact whereabouts at that time. I do know that when I went to check on Celes myself, I got no response from her. I became increasingly concerned, but knew breaking the door down would only exacerbate the tensions between us, so Enoshima and I returned to the third floor after confirming no one was in the gymnasium; Oowada and Fujisaki had the rest of the first floor covered.”

“Celes wasn’t answering…?” Makoto found that rather odd. Sakura nodded her head.

“Indeed. However, as Kuwata confirmed just a short while ago, he did indeed find Celes in the infirmary after the announcement went off, so she had to be in there.” Sakura crossed her arms thoughtfully. “What troubled me most is that we neglected to check the art room after finding Togami had gone missing. We all checked the rec room together, but we neglected the art room…”

Makoto smiled wryly at that.

“And I think that was my fault… Me and Maizono never found anything in there when we looked for Togami the first time, so I wrote it off too soon… If we had checked it, I bet we could have saved Yamada…”

“Naegi… None of this was your fault.” Sakura assured the luckster. “Simply get that thought out of your head. We were all panicking with all the events going on… No one person is at fault here. It was my fault for neglecting to ask about it as well, when we passed it on our way downstairs.”

Rubbing the back of his neck, Makoto smiled sheepishly.

“Well, I guess that brings us up to the present, more or less. So, you and Enoshima found the bodies… er… body…” The luckster corrected himself. Sakura shook her head.

“No. The way I handled it, I told Enoshima to wait outside the art room, just in case the killer was still inside. Then, when I found Yamada and Togami, I told Enoshima to go find you and Maizono, since I figured you would still be close by. Luckily, you were.”

Makoto blinked in surprise.

“O-Oh! So Enoshima never saw Yamada and Togami herself… That explains why the announcement didn’t go off! Only you and Togami saw Yamada’s body. Well, assuming he didn’t kill Yamada…”

Sakura nodded slowly as she processed that information.

“That… That is indeed correct. Togami’s announcement wouldn’t have gone off since he wasn’t really dead, but I was still highly confused why it was delayed, at the time. Nevertheless, with Enoshima bringing you and Maizono, there was at least four, if not five, people who found Yamada’s body, not counting the killer.”

Makoto frowned as the fighter summarized that part.

“Four or five people… that is a bit hard to know if the killer was among us or not… You sure you and Enoshima never split up or anything?”

Sakura shook her head.

“No. After everything that happened, I… did not want to take any more chances. I stuck to Enoshima’s side to ensure her safety.”

Makoto nodded in understanding. Since he knew he and Maizono never split up, and he believed Sakura, that did at least trim the suspect list down a lot. Togami was still possible, though doubtful. That left Oowada, Fujisaki, Celes, Kuwata, and Kirigiri. He didn’t want to doubt them… But he also knew that without personally checking into their whereabouts and actions, he’d be endangering everyone.

He would not let that happen. Six possible suspects in total… The same odds as Russian Roulette, ironically enough.

~*~

The remaining rooms on the third floor, unfortunately, didn’t offer up much more information. The prep room still had huge bloodstains, but Naegi also noticed there was a trail like something had been wheeled through the blood. This at least raised the chances of his theory of Togami being transported… What’s more, there **was** blue tarps in the prep room, so the one in the art storage room likely originated from the prep room.

The only other major thing of note… is that while the hammer Togami used in his fake murder was colored like the other hammers they’d come across, this one didn’t have a ‘Justice Hammer’ number on it. It even lacked the name. It lent more credence to the theory that while Togami was mimicking the ‘madman’s’ attacks, that was all it was – mimicry. Togami wasn’t the ‘madman’ himself.

At least, that’s what Naegi deduced from the evidence so far.

The rec room still had the ‘Justice Hammer #1’ and the smashed camera, but nothing else of note. No one had stayed to investigate the rec room or the physics’ prep room; either they’d already had a look around, or they ignored those areas. Naegi thought that was fair enough; Celes was attacked in the rec room, but they’d seen everything there’d been to see the first time in there. And as for the prep room…

Well, Naegi supposed no one wanted to think about what Togami did. Didn’t want to entertain his sick game. The luckster was glad he bothered to check, however. Somebody had to.

That brought Naegi back to the present… He elected to leave the library for the others to search, and chose to inspect the infirmary. Celes and Kuwata were there when he arrived.

“Yo, Naegs! Find anything?” The baseball star greeted Naegi casually. He smiled wryly in return.

“… A little. What about you guys? You have a good look around yet?”

Celes twirled a lock of hair around her finger disinterestedly.

“I am still of the belief that Togami did it… So, no, I have not found anything of note.” The gambler replied.

Leon ran a hand through his hair in annoyance.

“You should put at least a little effort into it! Our lives **are** on the line here!” The baseball star grumbled. Celes smiled pleasantly, hands folded under her chin.

“Oh…? So I take it **you** have found something riveting, since you’ve been here, same as me?”

Leon shrugged.

“I dunno… Maybe? I found there’s a fridge in here, stocked with blood packs for transfusions and stuff. I betcha they’re what Togami used to fake his death.”

As Makoto nodded in agreement, Celes rolled her eyes.

“Well, duh. I worked **that** out when we found him alive. No sane person mutilates themselves!”

“… Togami’s sane?” Leon cracked a grin mischievously. Makoto groaned.

“Anyway… Celes, you were in the infirmary the entire time, right?” Makoto asked the gambler, moving the investigation along. Celes quirked an eyebrow elegantly.

“I should hope so. With a madman out there, they could take me at any time and finish the job. Why do you ask?”

Makoto nervously smiled at the slight annoyance entering her tone. He should have expected it, really.

“It’s just… Well, no one stayed behind with you. So I thought, did anyone ever stop by to check up on you?”

Celes tsk’ed.

“Of course, some came to check in. The investigation must have dragged for so many to bother. That is why I stopped answering after a while… No news is good news, right?” The gambler smiled pleasantly at the luckster, hands folded. “I suppose Oogami, Enoshima, Oowada, and Fujisaki all checked in at some point. Those are the ones I bothered to remember, anyway.”

Leon rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“Gee, I’m not worth remembering? Go figure.”

Celes eyebrows raised as she held a hand over her mouth neutrally.

“… Oh. You.” That was all she bothered to ‘add’, and that just added insult to injury, really.

“Seriously?!” The baseball star groused. Makoto frowned as he thought over the people Celes mentioned. That… seemed to line up with what Sakura told him, more or less. She’d never been a big fan of Kuwata, so not mentioning him to rile him up seemed like something she’d do.

… Which is why her story seemed so strangely… perfect. Tidy. Makoto couldn’t put his finger on it, but there had to be more to it. As it was, he wasn’t going to get more out of her right now – as the Hope’s Peak forums described her, Celes was the “King of Liars.” If she didn’t want to tell him what happened during the investigation, then she wasn’t going to.

… There was still one more thing he thought to ask her about.

“Hey, Celes, how come you were up before the morning announcement? That seems… unlike you.” The luckster mused.

Celes bowed her head a bit and clasped her hands together lightly.

“Ah… that. I believe this will return to the topic of the ‘madman’ I told you about… You see, early in the morning, I could hear someone trying to break down my door. Out of morbid curiosity, I looked through the peephole, and saw the costumed madman moving down the hall… When I was sure he had left, I slipped out of my room, and immediately went to Yamada’s room.”

Leon rolled his eyes in disbelief.

“Oh yeah, this sounds smart… Someone tries busting down your door, and you go outside?!”

Celes huffed.

“I was certain we could contain this before anyone got murdered! As much of an oaf as he is, Yamada had **some** strength… And at the time, he was the best that I had. The rest of you would have been suspicious of me.”

“With good reason!” Leon griped. Makoto, though, frowned.

“You could have come to me…”

Celes went silent at this, staring down at the floor.

“… I did not want to endanger you.” She replied quietly. Leon gestured exaggeratedly.

“Suuure! You won’t endanger **Naegi** , but you’ll throw Tubs to the wolves! Real kind of you there.” He sarcastically quipped.

Celes growled waspishly.

“Naegi-kun’s strength, if you couldn’t tell, lies elsewhere! Oowada knocked him out on the first day, so again, Yamada was the best I had!” The gambler huffed. “… So in the end, we went hunting the madman together, and the bastard still caught us by surprise. You know what happened after that…”

Makoto frowned as he processed all this. He still wasn’t sure what it was, but he knew his gut was telling him that Celes wasn’t being completely truthful here. If push came to shove, he’d have to get the truth from her in the Class Trial… though he hoped that it wouldn’t come to that. Because even though he hadn’t officially accepted the role of ‘knight’, he did still feel compelled as a friend to not humiliate her by dragging the truth out in a trial…

He really hoped his gut was wrong, this once.

~*~

Sayaka smiled sadly as she took a look at the designs for herself. She came to check out Yamada’s room at Fujisaki’s request, and she knew she wasn’t going to like what the programmer had found out.

“A… robo suit costume… That means Yamada made it…” The idol murmured. Her brow furrowed. “But… what does it mean?”

Fujisaki bowed his head sorrowfully.

“I-I don’t know… The costume isn’t anywhere in here, just the plans for it. M-Maybe he didn’t bring it to life yet…?”

Sayaka shook her head, frowning.

“No, Celes and Yamada said they saw it… Well, Celes did. If we consider Yamada at least designed it, then we have to consider he was working with someone. There’s no way this would fit him.” She smiled wryly, shaking the paper emphatically. Fujisaki’s brow furrowed.

“Th-Then… Was Yamada working with Togami? To fool Celes and m-maybe kill her? I-I don’t want to think Yamada could do something like that…!”

“Well, with how she treated him, I wouldn’t be surprised if he wanted to kill her.” Sayaka mused. “I don’t want to think about it either, but maybe Togami was the one who approached Yamada about it? I mean, he did fake his death…”

“S-Still…” Fujisaki mumbled. “Togami was never found wearing the suit, right? I mean… I don’t think any of us found it yet…”

“True.” Sayaka conceded. “But also consider this: Togami tricks Yamada into a partnership, saying they’re going to kill Celes and get out together. They concoct a murder plot to pull it off, even ditching the costume so Togami’s not connected with it, and… Togami stabs Yamada in the back. Wouldn’t that make sense?”

Fujisaki began to cry at the thought of it.

“That... That’s so cruel! I-I don’t want to believe Togami is capable of that… But where would they ditch the costume…?”

“I’m not sure…”

~*~

Ironically enough, they found both the costume and Kirigiri in quick succession. Enoshima had found the lilac-haired girl investigating the locker on the far end of the pool, and they’d found the robo costume in there. It didn’t take long to get word around to the others, and from there, deduce who would be able to fit in it.

“A little big for Kuwata…” Kirigiri mused as the baseball star had been forced to try it on while the others, save for Oowada, Togami, and Oogami, watched. “Barely, though. It’s almost his size.”

Leon griped as he removed the costume, finding out someone first needed to unclasp it from the back.

“Can we… just… forget about this?! It’s not like this huge-ass thing ever came up!”

Makoto frowned thoughtfully at that. Not while they were running around, no… Did the killer have to improvise? Was the costume a part of the original plan, and they had to scrap it for some unseen reason?

“Wh-Where were you, Kirigiri?! We were worried about you!” Fujisaki spoke out once Kuwata had managed to get out of the costume completely. Kirigiri ran a hand through her hair while keeping a neutral expression.

“… I would rather not discuss that here. Let’s stick to Yamada’s murder.” The mysterious girl had been brought up to speed by Enoshima already, at least the very basics. Still, Kirigiri’s reticence was not a welcome response to Fujisaki’s concern…

“Are you **serious**?!” Junko growled, hand twitching in aggravation. “All that running around, you disappear for all of it, and you give us **that**?!”

“Like Fujisaki said, we were worried!” Sayaka piped up.

Leon ran a hand through his hair agitatedly.

“Yeah, I’m callin’ bullshit on that… You don’t get to slide with a ‘maybe later’ excuse!”

“Quite the fair information exchange we have here… We give you everything, but you tell us **nothing** …” Celes bitterly snapped.

Kirigiri crossed her arms and looked around the assembled group. She then turned to Makoto in particular.

“… If that is what you all feel… I will tell you exactly what I was doing, but only if Naegi agrees with you all.”

At the mysterious girl’s conditions, all eyes were on Makoto, who looked down at the floor, uncertain. His hands clenched to fists anxiously.

“… Is it really something that we should keep secret…?” The luckster asked quietly. Kirigiri gave a small smile and closed her eyes patiently.

“I think it’s the best course of action… What I found may help us in the long run, and I do mean past the Class Trial.”

Makoto nodded in understanding before looking back up at Kirigiri.

“Then… Let’s leave it for after the trial!” He smiled sheepishly at some of the disgruntled expressions he got. “I-I know, I know… It’s not really fair, but I’ll trust Kirigiri! She did find… this…”

The luckster gestured at the pieces of the robo costume. The costume they’d heard about, but never seen until that moment.

… A costume that only two people had reportedly seen. And that made Makoto more nervous than anything… Because it meant there was only one living witness... And Makoto knew she was hiding something.

~*~

Shortly after that, Monokuma announced it was time for the Class Trial to begin. They all anxiously made their way to the red door on the first floor of the school zone, though when they reached it…

“Hey, asshole!” Mondo growled as he cracked his knuckles threateningly. “Why the sudden request, huh?!”

Togami scoffed derisively.

“Call it my insurance… You’ll all be thanking me later, mark my words.”

Makoto frowned as Togami put it like that. They’d all made it to the elevator, minus Kirigiri, who Togami had sent to fetch something from the crime scene. He wouldn’t elaborate on what, not even to the girl he was asking the favor of.

Five minutes later, Kirigiri arrived to the sounds of Monokuma’s complaints and taunts. She ignored every single one, and they were all ordered to enter the elevator immediately. Makoto briefly pulled her aside as the others got on.

“Kirigiri…! What was that about?” He couldn’t help but ask. What did Togami want her to get?

Kirigiri merely smiled and closed her eyes.

“I promise it’ll all make sense, Naegi… Believe it or not, it’s necessary we do it this way. If we spring the trap too early, the killer has time to make excuses and escape. I can’t tell you what the evidence is, but believe me – when you need it, I’ll have it ready. You’ll know when that time comes. For now… just go off the evidence you’ve collected. Trust your gut. It won’t mislead you, but there’s more going on here, and we need you to play along.”

Makoto’s brow furrowed as the mysterious girl edged past him and into the elevator. He reluctantly followed suit. Soon enough, the elevator doors closed, and down they went... To the third Class Trial. A trial that would shed the coat of lies surrounding them… and expose another killer among them…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a whole lot gleaned here, per se... But as usual, it's the Class Trial that's the main event anyway. I was careful not to spoil too much, though, I'm sure some hawk-eyed readers may spot the light foreshadowing I sprinkled somewhere in the chapter. 
> 
> ... Or maybe I've lost my touch, and you'll all guess the correct answer before the trial even begins. Eh, it'd stay true to the Chapter 3 of canon if that happened, I suppose. I hope I'm not THAT predictable, though~ XD


	13. Chapter 3, Part 6: A Next Generation Legend! Stand Tall, Galactic Hero!

Once more, they took their places at the stands arrayed in a circle. For Makoto, the increasingly smaller group became all the more obvious. To be fair – that might have had something to do with Yamada no longer standing next to him, not to mention Ishimaru no longer standing on the other side of Sayaka. Just the two of them standing side by side now…

There were just ten of them left. One of them most definitely a murderer. And if they did catch the perp, the rest of them would be executed for it…

That’s why not even an atom-sized contradiction or inconsistency would get by Makoto. That was his resolve.

“You all know how the Class Trial works by now!” Monokuma preluded the proceedings. “Your votes will determine the outcome! If the majority votes for the blackened, then only they will be punished~! But if the majority votes for anyone besides the culprit, then everyone else will be punished, and the blackened will go free! So~! How about you all get crackin’ on who axed Porky?”

Mondo groaned. Loudly.

“Aw, c’mon?! Can’t we skip this preliminary crap? We all know who did it!” The biker glared daggers at the Togami heir. Hands on her hips, Celes looked off to the side disinterestedly.

“I must confess that I agree with the sentiment… It’s really rather open-and-shut. Only Togami could have performed the murder. Who else had the freedom and opportunity that he did?”

Kirigiri ran a hand through her hair with slight exasperation.

“That’s what a Class Trial is for… It’s our last chance to see things we may have missed. Do you really want to rush it?”

Celes leaned forward intimidatingly.

“If there is only one real suspect from the beginning, I fail to see how that ‘rushes’ the proceedings…”

From his spot next to her, Togami snorted with amusement.

“Only one suspect with unrestricted freedom and opportunity? I can actually think of more than a few individuals that meet that description… But do go on, the noose tightens around all our necks the more you insist on it.”

Celes narrowed her eyes at the scion, but didn’t say another word in response. From her position, Sakura frowned with her arms crossed over her chest.

“I am fine with deliberating over the case… But where should we begin? There have been a number of suspicious incidents, some of them even at the same time or back-to-back…”

Kirigiri calmly nodded in understanding.

“That’s a fair question… I suppose there are two potential topics to start with. After all, unlike last time, the cause of death this time is a little more certain… Yamada was killed with a hammer, and it’s likely the one found next to his body. No sleight of hand involved there.”

Leon tilted his head and eyed the lilac-haired girl suspiciously.

“How do ya know **that**? All the Monokuma File said was that death was by blunt force trauma! Didn’t describe the weapon or anything!”

“Given the relative isolation of the crime scene, it’s unlikely the killer took the weapon with them.” Kirigiri explained, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. “The risk of being caught with it would have been too great, with so many running around looking for the missing people. Again… The likelihood of there being a trick to the murder weapon this time: Very low. So let’s instead latch onto something else of interest – Naegi, given everything you found out, would you say that there was only one attacker or perp during this whole ordeal?”

Makoto had to stop and think about everything he’d learned over the course of the investigation. He frowned and cupped his chin skeptically.

“… Well, we know that the stuff with Togami was separate from Yamada’s murder… I mean, Togami wasn’t really attacked. He faked it.” The luckster took her silence as a prompt to keep going. “There’s more, too – the different hammers we came across. The most common was those ‘Justice Hammer’ things. Well… I suppose calling them different hammers might be a little misleading…”

Sakura nodded slowly in agreement.

“Ah, that’s right… The ‘Justice Hammers’ were just painted versions of hammers taken from the art storage room. We did not see hammers of that size anywhere else.”

Sayaka frowned thoughtfully.

“Okay, so we know where all those hammers came from… But what did you mean by ‘different kinds’, Naegi-kun?”

“Well, the painted one that Togami used in his fake murder was different from the ‘Justice Hammers’, for one.” Makoto explained. “I found that out after checking the prep room one more time. It’s painted to look like the ‘Justice Hammers’, but it lacked the title and numbering system they used. I’m guessing Togami got a sneak peek at them, but he either missed that numbering system detail or he wanted to distinguish his incident from everything else.”

Togami crossed his arms stubbornly, refusing to admit to anything.

“Hmph.”

“The third kind... was of course the unpainted hammers left in the storage room,” Makoto wrapped up his explanation. “Seems like the killer chose to use one of those. With that said, though, I’m not sure if that means the ‘madman’ who wielded the ‘Justice Hammers’ and the killer are separate people, or if the ‘madman’ decided he didn’t want to make a fourth ‘Justice Hammer’…”

Fujisaki’s brow furrowed.

“S-So… you think there m-might be three separate individuals? T-Togami, the killer, and the ‘madman’?”

Kirigiri smiled mysteriously, eyes closed thoughtfully.

“That’s precisely what we’re driving at. The two starting topics in front of us are these: We talk about Togami and his fake murder plot, or we delve into the ‘madman’ to see if they and the killer are the same person. Given everyone’s current thoughts on Togami, it might be best to start with the latter, just so everyone can see there is a distinction between the two, and possibly three, people.”

Junko crossed her arms and tilted her head in confusion.

“Huuuh…? Hold the phone. So you mean, Togami’s **not** the madman? **Or** the killer?”

Celes sighed airily.

“How many times must I say it? That is preposterous…”

Togami clicked his tongue in exasperation.

“If it was **my** plan, there wouldn’t be some gaudy ‘madman’ running around with ridiculous hammers…”

Mondo raised his fist threateningly at the heir.

“Oh yeah?! And faking your own death is better?!”

Togami snorted in amusement again.

“Oh… That wasn’t my idea, either. I hijacked that idea from somebody else to suit my needs… But if nothing else, that part was amusing. Horrendously idiotic with its original purpose, but I made it work. As expected of the future head of the Togami Empire…”

Makoto scratched his cheek nervously.

“… Yeeeah… Let’s go with that.” He coughed awkwardly. Of course he had so many questions about what Togami just said… but he had a feeling that was the whole point. Togami wasn’t going to start talking until they got the trial moving. “A-Anyway… We did end up finding the ‘madman’s’ costume… Though we’re not really sure if they ever used it…”

“What do you mean by that?” Sakura asked quizzically.

“Kirigiri found it in the locker on the far side of the pool!” Sayaka explained. “We never did find out who would fit in the costume…”

“Thing was too big for me!” Leon complained, hand ruffling his hair in annoyance.

Kirigiri cupped her chin as she stared at the floor in deep thought.

“6’1”.” The detective suddenly announced, giving no other information than that. Everyone stared at the girl like she’d grown a second head.

“Uh… what?” Mondo muttered intelligibly, voicing the group’s confusion. Even Togami was eyeing her shrewdly and waiting for elaboration.

“I measured it after Kuwata tried wearing it.” The lilac-haired girl answered. “It is an approximation, but… I didn’t exactly have a tape measure on me. Eyeballing it, I just estimated to be a little over 6’. Still, 6’1” makes the most sense. If it was 6’2” or even above that… That might be riskier for the ‘madman’.”

Sayaka blinked and knitted her brow in confusion.

“Riskier…?”

“Look over your student handbook profiles.” Kirigiri explained. “It happens to list everyone’s height.”

They did as Kirigiri suggested… and were surprised to find that, aside from Togami, Oowada, and Oogami, all the other remaining students were under 6’. Even Yamada was 5’7”, two inches shorter than Kuwata.

“Okay, I get the height detail…” Junko muttered as she pocketed her student handbook. “But could you explain what you mean by the other part? Why does height matter for the ‘madman’ if this is their suit to begin with?”

Kirigiri smiled mysteriously as she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

“I confirmed this costume belonged to the ‘madman’… I never once said they were the one to wear it. That distinct honor belonged to their chosen target.”

Everyone fell silent as they processed the meaning behind Kirigiri’s words. Then, utter chaos.

“The **fuck**?!” Mondo exclaimed, mouth agape and eyes wide.

“H-H-How does **that** make any fucking sense?!” Kuwata agreed with the biker, his expression was much the same as his arms hung limply at his sides.

“B-But Celes and Yamada both said they saw the ‘madman’ wearing it!” Fujisaki cried out in disbelief.

Junko sighed airily as she crossed her arms and looked down at the floor, shaking her head.

“You are making **zero** sense, girl!”

“I will admit, this does not line up with the facts, Kirigiri…” Celes frowned, eyes narrowed.

Makoto cut in before any others could join the maelstrom of confusion.

“No, no! I see what she’s getting at! No one else actually saw the costume walking around!” The luckster held a hand up to his chest emphatically. “ **I** certainly never saw anything like that, not even when we were up in the third floor when Celes said she saw the shadow of the ‘madman’ down the hall!”

“Yet you saw Togami faking his death in the prep room, did you not?” Celes snapped as her irritated gaze fell on Makoto.

“Well, where did he hide the suit while he was in the prep room?” Makoto reasonably retorted back. “For that matter, when did he get the chance to get it down to the second floor to hide it in the locker? Despite what you say about his freedom of movement, the second floor was definitely a high traffic area! Unless he **knew** nobody was going to be on that floor for a few minutes!”

Celes’s mouth snapped shut and she turned her head to the side furiously, unable to mount a comeback at that moment. Sayaka frowned as her brow furrowed.

“That’s not the only thing… I mean, doesn’t that costume seem a bit… attention-grabbing? Like you’re wearing a giant bullseye on your back?”

“Anyone found wearing the costume would immediately be deemed suspicious.” Sakura agreed sagely. Kirigiri smiled knowingly at all of them.

“Those aren’t the only inconsistencies… The third and final one can be found in the design of the costume.”

“What’s the design got to do with anything?!” Mondo raged, having not been present when they found the costume or seen Leon attempt to put it on.

“It’s got a clasp on the back.” Makoto explained. “Not only does it have to be put on in a certain way, it can’t be taken on or off by just yourself! At least one other person has to help you get the clasp on the back.”

“Oh! That’s right…” Fujisaki murmured, remembering that detail.

“And on top of that, Togami was by himself in the prep room!” Makoto finished his explanation. “The only one who might’ve been able to help him would have been you, Celes… Since you were both on the third floor.”

Celes glared daggers into the floor as she clenched her teeth tightly. Again, she had no rebuttal for any of this. As everyone processed this logic, Kirigiri pressed on.

“To summarize: the ‘madman’ and the person who would have worn the costume are two different people. The latter would have been a scapegoat to heap suspicion on, while the former would have been the mastermind to reap the benefits. Of course, given how events played out, they never got to make use of the costume; their target eluded them. Since the costume was built for someone taller than 6’, we can deduce out of the possible candidates, Togami was the most likely target. After all, Oowada and Oogami would have easily overpowered anyone targeting them… Togami, on the other hand, could be physically overwhelmed if ambushed.”

Togami scoffed as Kirigiri pointed this out.

“You have to wake up pretty early to get the drop on me… What I lack in physical prowess, I more than make up for in ingenuity and brains!” The heir chuckled to himself smugly. He then scowled and looked over at Kirigiri. “… But alright. Since you have worked out this much, I will admit – I was aware that somebody was going to target me. So I planned a counterattack accordingly.”

Mondo growled lowly at he cracked his knuckles threateningly.

“How the **fuck** did you know someone was gonna target you?!”

Togami eyed the biker distastefully.

“I thought that had been obvious. Or do you suppose Monokuma makes announcements such as additional motives without everyone present and accounted for?”

Leon recoiled a bit at that revelation.

“H-Huh?! You were in the cafeteria when Monokuma announced that?!”

Fujisaki’s brow knitted together in confusion.

“B-But… nobody saw you!”

“Of course I never set foot past the doorway…” Togami dryly quipped. “Monokuma advised me to come to the cafeteria for a ‘special announcement’ that morning, but I wasn’t about to join you all for my last supper. Eavesdropping was more than sufficient.”

Makoto scratched his cheek nervously.

“… Okay, yeah… I guess we should have seen that coming… I just assumed Monokuma told you later, or something…”

Togami scoffed haughtily.

“Well, you were wrong. Next.” He sneered as the idol looked ready to slap him again.

Kirigiri sighed airily as she closed her eyes and tilted her head slightly.

“I was hoping you would give us a little more to go on than that… But I suppose to loosen your lips, we’ll have to puzzle out the mastermind’s identity.”

Togami smirked tauntingly.

“You know me so well.”

More than a few people sighed at the heir’s obstinance at making this more difficult than it needed to be. Yet out of everyone that could have spoken next, it was Fujisaki, who was frowning thoughtfully, pressing his index fingers together.

“S-So… If the scapegoat was just supposed to take the blame in the ‘madman’s’ plan, does that mean it was the mastermind who was dropping those, er… ‘Justice Hammers’?”

Mondo blinked in surprise as Fujisaki brought up the hammers again.

“Hey, you’re right…! Who did drop those hammers?” The biker scowled as he tried to think about it himself.

Sayaka’s brow furrowed worriedly.

“W-Well… I think it was probably the same person who made the costume… unfortunately…”

Leon crossed his arms and frowned in confusion.

“Eh? We know who made that crappy thing?”

Sakura, however, latched onto a different part of Sayaka’s statement.

“Why ‘unfortunately’…?” The fighter lightly clenched a hand into a fist, having a feeling that this next revelation was not going to be a pleasant one.

Fujisaki bowed his head tearfully.

“W-We found the blueprints for the costume in Yamada’s room…! I-If he’s the mastermind, that m-means Yamada wasn’t just a victim!” The programmer cried.

Junko took a step back, hand twitching in shock.

“Whoa, really?! Yamada tried pulling one over on Togami?!”

Leon snorted in disbelief.

“Still, the robo costume and cheesy hammers seem like things he’d throw together! Jeez… Well, when ya think about it, Toges and Yams were both in that storage room! I guess that solves the case. Again.”

Mondo punched his palm excitedly.

“Togami knew someone was gonna try to kill him, so he pulled one over on the idiot and smashed his head in, instead! Makes total sense!”

Makoto frowned as they were coming to this conclusion. It didn’t seem **wrong** , per se, given the evidence, but…

Celes sighed theatrically.

“Well, I guess since you all have worked out this much, I will reveal it all!” Celes folded her hands beneath her chin and beamed pleasantly. “Yamada was going to kill me, and pin the blame on Togami. However, Togami saw through his ruse, and protected me by driving Yamada off! His only condition… was that I do not tell a soul of what I had witnessed of his and Yamada’s ‘partnership’. If I kept my lips shut, Togami promised I could escape with him once Yamada was dead.”

Leon reeled back in shock.

“Y-You’re… stabbing **him** in the back?!”

Celes scowled distastefully, placing her hands on her hips.

“Well, it is not so much that… Though I must confess, Togami is not my preferred companion, were I to escape at all from this place. The long and short of it is that Togami also threatened me… He said if I didn’t stay quiet, he would kill me, too. He had no compulsion to take me with him; and Monokuma’s rules did allow for there to be a serial murder. So, I stayed my tongue throughout the entire investigation. And now that we are safe, here in this trial room, where he cannot murder without being seen by anyone… I feel the need to get this all off my chest.” Celes giggled mirthfully. “The truth really is liberating, you know? Now all the lines of logic connect. As they say, this would be ‘checkmate’.”

As they all processed Celes’s confession, Makoto reflected on everything. … On the surface, everything Celes admitted to **did** line up. Yamada designed the costume and the hammers to pin the blame for a murder on Togami. Celes being his target? Also believable. Celes didn’t exactly treat Yamada… decently. Not to mention, Togami also admitted that he worked out someone was planning to kill him, so it would make sense to lure that person into a false sense of security and partner with him… The altercation with Celes? Believable. With an ‘eyewitness’, Yamada’s ‘madman’ sighting is more credible; and Togami could convince him to target someone else with everyone panicked over a ‘madman’ on the loose.

The only real part that was left in doubt was Togami’s fake murder… But really, that could easily be explained as Togami having the freedom to move and rendezvous with Yamada in the storage room, only to kill him there and set up another fake scene. Celes coming clean about everything now, when Togami could not murder her, was perfectly understandable.

Everything clicked. And yet… he remembered Kirigiri’s warning. There was more going on here. He should listen to his gut feeling, so Makoto went over everything again. What evidence or testimony did he come across that would suggest Celes’s tale wasn’t... wholesome?

“… The bloodstain in the prep room…” Makoto muttered to himself. Celes quirked an eyebrow at the luckster.

“Hmm…? I beg your pardon, Naegi-kun?”

Makoto frowned as he thought over exactly how to put this.

“Everything you said… A lot of it makes sense. Like, even though we found Togami ‘dead’ in the storage room, doesn’t mean Yamada found him that way. Togami could have fabricated that after killing Yamada.” The luckster admitted all this. He stroked his chin thoughtfully. “And the hammer that Togami created in his fake murder? Again, the partnership with Yamada would have given him the chance to see the ‘Justice Hammers’ before they were used. I’m assuming that when you said you were attacked in the rec room, and as well as last night when someone tried to break into your room, Togami forced you to make up that story, too?”

Celes nodded slowly, unsure where the brunet was going with this.

“Indeed… All of my actions were at Togami’s demand.”

Makoto nodded in understanding.

“Right… But if all that’s true, why would Yamada wheel Togami’s ‘body’ to the storage room? There were signs of something being wheeled through the bloodstain, after Togami had gone missing. And it doesn’t really make sense that Togami would just… take that trolley from the storage room, wheel it through the bloodstain in the prep room, only to take it back to the storage room!”

Celes tsk’ed at the minor detail.

“Just another fabrication! How else could he explain that his ‘body’ was transported by Yamada? Don’t forget also that a blue tarp from the prep room was discovered in the storage room. That would have been reason enough to go back to the prep room, would it not?”

Togami snorted derisively.

“You’re clinging pretty hard to that tale you weaved out of nothing… **I** never touched that trolley and tarp… not ‘willingly’, anyway. The moron was most certainly the one to transport me… He’s the only one that could, considering you were all downstairs at the time.”

Makoto winced as the tension in the air increased a hundredfold. He’d really hoped the bloodstain would be case-breaking enough, but in the end, it’d just created more turmoil. Yamada was definitely working with someone… The question of who it was, could only be answered by Togami and Celes. And they were telling two completely clashing stories, so it was hard to tell who was lying. It would be easy to side with Celes, but… on the off-chance Togami was telling the truth, everyone would die. He couldn’t let that happen, so the luckster fell into a miserable silence.

Kirigiri sighed exasperatedly as Celes and Togami glared daggers at each other. This was going nowhere.

“We need more inconsistencies… Evidence, testimony, it doesn’t matter. At this point, it could be either Togami or Celes that’s lying, but neither one is about to budge.”

“Evidence or testimony…” Sayaka murmured, eyes looking downcast as she tried thinking it over. Nothing had come up, not from anything she came across.

“Uh…” Mondo rubbed the back of his head and looked down as he felt all eyes on him. “Shit… I guess this is my fuckup. I just… didn’t bring it up, ‘cause what would be the point? I mean, it’s gotta be Togami, right? He’s the one with the most to lose if we found the note…”

Junko cocked her head confusedly.

“Note? Nobody said anything about a note!”

Mondo scowled at the fashionista as he clenched his fists.

“’Cause no one bothered asking me about anything I found! Though I guess that’s my fault, too, since I ran off to guard the asshole at the red door…” Mondo growled in frustration. He then dug something out of his jacket’s pocket, revealing a crumpled note. “Here. I found this by the incinerator. I was the janitor this week, so I figured it was my responsibility to check it out!”

Makoto frowned as he read the note out loud for everyone.

“’Togami, I found an escape route that leads outside… If you want to hear more, come to the physics’ prep room at 6am.’” The luckster blinked owlishly. This was definitely the first he’d heard about this.

Celes clicked her tongue again.

“I fail to see how this proves his innocence… Oowada was the janitor, and he couldn’t get close to the incinerator. So he simply threw it through the shutter to dispose of it.”

“Pretty clumsy mistake…” Junko deadpanned. “I mean, we found it!”

“Too clumsy for Togami.” Kirigiri intoned, once again cupping her chin thoughtfully. “If he wanted, Togami could have hidden it in his room, or kept it on himself. That is, assuming he received the note in the first place.”

Celes snorted in disbelief.

“Really? And what if he anticipated a body or room search? No method of hiding the note guaranteed we wouldn’t find it.”

Togami cut in abruptly.

“Oh, and by the way… I did receive that piece of trash – it was slid under my door secretly. So like a Good Samaritan, I placed it out for trash pickup by sliding it back outside. I guess now I know what the garbage man did with it.” The blond snickered arrogantly.

The luckster sweatdropped at the heir’s condescending attitude. Even if that was the truth, it was coming from him. Celes would keep insisting that he was lying.

“The recipient’s name is still on the note!” Makoto pointed out. “At the very least, he would have torn off the part with his name, and left us wondering who it was addressed to!”

“P-Plus it’s in Yamada’s handwriting…! I recognize it from the blueprints!” Fujisaki cried out.

Celes growled at them.

“Togami and Yamada were **partners** …! Of **course** Togami would ask that useless tub of lard to dispose of such a vital clue!”

Kirigiri smirked at the gambler, crossing her arms smugly.

“Except no part in Togami and Yamada’s purported ‘plot’ called for Togami to be summoned to the prep room… Really, if you’re going to call everything that goes against your intricate story a lie, anything could be a lie. Like it or not, this note lines up with the mastermind’s decision to scrap the costume part of the plot… This overturns your story completely.”

Celes leaned forward intimidatingly.

“Overturns… completely…?” The gambler proceeded to raise her index finger with the claw accessory on it and shout furiously. “ **Like hell you chuckle-fucks**! If Yamada wasn’t working with Togami, everything crumbles! There’s no reliable narrative for this string of nonsensical events! **Togami is the fucking mastermind**!!!”

Kirigiri dropped her arms before panning her eyes over to Makoto.

“… Naegi, what do you think? Do you think Togami is the only possible candidate for Yamada’s partner in all this?”

Makoto took a deep breath and closed his eyes calmly. He had to confront the elephant in the room, at last. For the longest time, he’d been getting a gut feeling that Celes was holding back… Something vital. He had hoped against hope that Celes’s confession about Togami had been the secret she was desperately clutching onto… But now that the confession was being called into question, he had to confront the other possibility of Yamada’s partner in this case…

He didn’t want to do this. He hated indicting his friends. But Celes was clutching at straws by this point, and he **had** to expose the truth in these trials. If he didn’t, they would all die. And what’s more…

“Considering everything…? I’d say it’s highly possible Yamada was working with someone that wasn’t Togami… And if we go over everything we learned, there’s only one candidate that stands out above all others. And… That’s you, Celes.”

Celes gawked at the luckster’s accusation.

“I… excuse me?!”

… Belief without doubt was a lie. Makoto had come to realize that now. Doubt was not the opposite of faith. Doubt was just one element of faith.

“You saw the ‘madman’, too.” Makoto pressed on. “You led us around, chasing shadows and keeping us all together at various stages of the investigation. Those were the opportunities that Yamada had to move around… Not to mention, Yamada’s cries for help were also likely staged – cues for you to get the rest of us moving.”

Celes reeled back in shock, showing genuine emotion on her face for once.

“Wh… That is preposterous! You have no proof!”

Makoto’s gaze hardened as he stared her down.

“Your own scream was pretty peculiar… It brought us to you, but it was a cue to Yamada, right? ‘Everyone is down here, move the body and we’ll meet up later!’”

Togami snorted in agreement.

“That idiot certainly wheeled me to the storage room shortly after that horrendous scream.”

Celes snarled at the heir.

“Except by that time, I had no idea that you were ‘murdered’! Think on that, you little shit!”

Togami chuckled mirthfully, arms crossed and eyes close smugly.

“My, my… I do beg your pardon.” He used the same patronizing tone that she had once used on him.

Kirigiri cupped her chin and narrowed her eyes.

“Celes does have a point… She couldn’t send cues to Yamada to move a body when she hadn’t heard about it yet. That peculiar scream was a cue for something else. Perhaps for Yamada to perform his own murder… That just might explain everything, actually.”

Makoto’s brow furrowed as he locked eyes with the mysterious girl.

“Explain everything?”

Kirigiri nodded slowly, dropping her arms once more.

“Yes. Yamada and Celes were partners – they were going to work together and escape. One of them would kill, and the other would hide the body to give the killer an alibi… That was the plan on paper, at least. I imagine the original plan was for Yamada to kill Togami, or at least summon him to the prep room to capture him and use as a disposable scapegoat, just for extra insurance.” Kirigiri ran a hand through her hair gently. “… But Togami derailed that plan. Yamada and Celes had to improvise. Only problem is, Yamada must have heard about Togami’s ‘murder’ before Celes did… Likely eavesdropped at some point. And he assumed, incorrectly, when he found the body in the prep room that Celes had already done their murder. So he transported Togami’s body to the storage room, and waited there for further orders.”

Celes was snarling again by this point, but the others were listening to Kirigiri’s theory. There wasn’t much she could do about that. She would keep denying, keep demanding for proof… But now, there was another plausible theory on the table, and people were **listening** to it…

She wasn’t in control. And Celes despised that.

“Supposing I **did** conspire with Yamada… And that is a **very big if** …” Celes hissed hatefully, glaring at Kirigiri. “And supposing I **did** rendezvous with him later… **Why** would I feel the need to kill Yamada?! If I was going to get out anyway, there’d be no fucking **point** , shithead!!!”

Kirigiri arched an eyebrow at the rapidly demoralizing gambler. Makoto couldn’t help but furrow his brow at how calmly Kirigiri was taking this meltdown… Granted, Kirigiri was always a cool customer when it came to these Class Trials, but this seemed…

“…” Makoto continued to watch the mysterious girl and how she would respond.

“Your reason for attacking Yamada?” Kirigiri asked for clarification. At Celes’s animalistic growl of rage, the lilac-haired girl continued. “I think that’s rather obvious. Monokuma’s second part of the incentive.”

“The second part…?” Sayaka echoed, blinking slowly as she tried to pin down exactly what that meant. “… The ‘bring one person with you’ incentive…?”

Kirigiri shook her head slowly.

“Yamada was always going to be a stepping stone, I’m afraid… Not only because he was a co-conspirator, a loose end that needed dealing with – Celes genuinely did not want Yamada to be her ‘plus one’. That was never going to be on the agenda. Whether he spilled first blood, or whether he let her do it… He was going to wind up on the chopping block before the investigation was through.”

Mondo’s eyes widened and he gritted his teeth, twitching his hand angrily.

“Sonuva…! That bitch set him up?!”

Leon cocked his head slightly, crossing his arms in disapproval.

“Jeez… That’s cold! Why would she just… y’know…?” He trailed off, not really sure how to put it kindly.

Junko examined her nails neutrally.

“Well, Yamada did a lot of the heavy-lifting, right? Did up the costume, the hammers, even summoned Togami… Who was going to look at her, with all that evidence damning him? Can’t really break off a partnership if he’s still alive; he’d rat her out.”

Celes was heaving furiously by this point, but she had no words to spew out. Makoto winced as he could muster no words himself… He really didn’t want to believe she was capable of this. And yet… At the very least, the theory sounded plausible. More plausible than her own proposal of Togami using and throwing away Yamada…

He honestly just hoped… she wasn’t as heartless as they were making her out to be. If this proved to be true.

Sakura opened her eyes slowly, arms crossed in front of her chest.

“… I understand how events could have unfolded when Celes went to meet Yamada in the storage room. Much like how Yamada assumed she killed Togami, Celes believed Yamada to have performed the deed when she saw his ‘corpse’… She believed, against all odds, everything was on track for her escape. The only thing left for her to do was tie up that loose end…” The fighter sighed morosely, not wanting to believe this theory, herself.

Fujisaki looked up at the heir tearfully.

“T-Togami…! Is it true?! Did Celes really…?” The programmer sobbed as he couldn’t finish that thought.

Togami smirked and chuckled to himself, closing his eyes mirthfully.

“So now my testimony bears weight… Well, I won’t lie. Celes certainly did smash Yamada in the back of the head with one of those hammers. The oaf collapsed on his back, after he attempted to whirl around and fight back. A truly pitiful performance.” The heir snickered to himself. “And then, the Gothic Lolita fanatic cleaned up after herself and hastily made her exit.”

Mondo growled as he punched his palm threateningly, glaring daggers at the gambler, who all too willingly glared back.

“You **bitch**!!! Does loyalty mean jackshit to you?!”

Celes hissed caustically right back at the biker.

“Oh?! Not too long ago, you were so **certain** it was Togami! How wishy-washy you all are, taking this **murderer** at his word!”

Leon grinned nervously, lamenting he was standing next to the outraged gambler.

“That’s what Class Trials are for, right?! We **think** it’s gonna be one asshole, but it’s really a two-faced bitch!” Leon raised a fist, succumbing to his own rage. “Seriously, are you listening to yourself?! You couldn’t be any more fucking suspicious!”

Celes released a giggle that was clearly unhinged, unsettling everyone. She then snapped into her murderous rage again.

“ **I’m not admitting to a damn thing without any airtight evidence** , **you chuckle-fucks**!!! **I** killed Yamada?! Where’s your damn proof?! **I was in the infirmary after you fucks escorted me there**! And I never left even once! **How’s that**?!”

Most of them had reeled back cautiously at the gambler’s rapidly deteriorating mood. Only Togami, Kirigiri, and Oogami managed to keep their cool, though Oogami was looking at the gambler with pity in her eyes.

Junko scowled furiously back at Celes.

“Well, you **did** go to the bathroom with me, remember that?! That’s how Yamada got away in the first place!”

Celes nodded indulgently, folding her hands beneath her chin, beaming pleasantly again.

“Oh, yes… And I was **with you** at the time… But after that?” Celes snarled. “ **Never left the safety of that damn infirmary again**!”

Makoto frowned as that came up. It’s true, that’s what she insisted… But…

“But Celes, Kuwata says you went completely silent when he went to check on you… That’s what he told everyone. Right, Oogami? Kuwata?”

“Y-Yeah…” Leon stuttered, looking a little shaken up as that bit of testimony came up. He then tensed up and gave a determined expression. “Yeah, yeah! She went totally mute on us! Who knows if she was in there?!”

Sakura’s frown deepened as her eyes narrowed at Celes.

“That is indeed true… Kuwata said you did not want to be disturbed. At least that is what Oowada and Fujisaki reported.”

Celes snarled in frustration and rage.

“Well, then I didn’t want to be disturbed, **shithead**!”

Makoto’s brow furrowed at the slight inconsistency in that testimony…

_‘Went totally mute… did not want to be disturbed…’_ Out loud, the luckster said, “Kuwata, which was it?”

“H-Huh?!” The baseball star pulled his head back a bit, confused at the luckster’s question.

“Did she say that she didn’t want to be disturbed? Or was she completely silent?” Makoto elaborated, leaning on his witness stand in anticipation. “Please! This is very important!”

Leon began to sweat, but then he nodded reluctantly.

“She… I didn’t hear a thing! I-I just assumed she didn’t wanna be disturbed after so many check-ins, y’know?!”

Junko and Mondo groaned at the baseball star’s presumptuousness, but Makoto seemed to get the confirmation that he needed. He looked at Celes with a determined gaze.

“Celes… if no one could confirm you were in there, you don’t have an airtight alibi. And that means… you **could** have killed Yamada…”

“Naegi-kun…” Sayaka uttered softly, feeling awful that he had to be put through this. Doubting their friends… was always hard… But this time was different.

Celes hadn’t panicked and gotten paranoid like Hagakure. She hadn’t taken matters into her own hands to protect somebody else, like Ishimaru had. This murder was focused purely on greed. Unlike the past murders, this was a true, coldhearted betrayal.

Makoto didn’t deserve this.

Celes heaved heavily, also leaning on her stand. She glared spitefully at Makoto, and murderously at everyone else.

“I… will admit **nothing** …! You have nothing on me! Just a questionable alibi! And a murdering bastard’s fairytale!”

Makoto winced at the continued denial. He had hoped she would at least honor him as a friend, let him believe in her at the very end… As eccentric and condescending as she could be, Makoto truly believed he was uncovering the real Celes, getting to know her…

But he even doubted that now, and he hated it. As he looked around at the others, they seemed more or less set to proceed to Voting Time… No one was voicing objections – not even Togami or Kirigiri.

Makoto frowned deeply as he regarded those two. All throughout, they’d been contributing… And they hadn’t said anything for a while now. Not since Togami admitted to what exactly he witnessed Celes doing…

“Well! You all seem about ready! Wanna jump to Voting Time?!” Monokuma piped up, having not pitched in since the trial started. He seemed upbeat as always.

… Makoto reflected back on Togami’s testimony. And he recalled…

“The hammers…!” Makoto breathed out, whipping towards Togami frantically. “Togami! You said Celes ‘cleaned up’ after herself!”

Togami’s eyes narrowed at the luckster appraisingly.

“… So I did…” He trailed off leadingly, awaiting further input from the brunet.

“Do you mean that Celes washed the blood off the hammer she used?!” Makoto demanded to know. This was crucial, even if most of the others seemed nonplussed.

For several, agonizing tense seconds the Togami heir regarded the Ultimate Lucky Student with a sharp, hawk-eyed gaze. Then, he chuckled to himself in amusement.

“You really are slow to catch on, Naegi… Yes. That’s precisely what I meant. Celes washed the blood off her hammer and **placed it back on the wall**.” The heir stressed, regarding the rest of the class like they were imbeciles for not noticing that detail. Sakura, however, seemed to be the only one ashamed at letting that detail slip from her mind, having been there when Makoto made the initial discovery.

Mondo’s hand twitched as he tried to process exactly what they were driving at.

“… What the fuck are you two going on about?” The biker muttered, totally lost.

Togami opened his mouth, no doubt eager to mock the biker, but Naegi cut him off.

“Oowada… There was two suspicious hammers at the crime scene. We only saw the one on the floor, so I don’t blame you for not noticing. But there was another hammer washed off and hanging on the wall! Why would Celes hide her murder weapon, and then manufacture a fake weapon when there was no differences between hers and the fake?!”

**That** brought their eagerness for Voting Time to a screeching halt…

“The hell?!” Junko exclaimed, caught off-guard. “Are you saying there was **another** attacker?!”

Kirigiri smiled calmly and knowingly, keeping her composure.

“Recall that toward the beginning of the trial, we were hypothesizing that Togami, the ‘madman’, and the killer were separate individuals…” She crossed her arms smugly and smirked at everyone. “How about we return to that hypothesis now, with everything we know?”

“I-Impossible…!” Leon cried out. “Th-There’s no way someone **else** stumbled on the crime scene!”

“Remember the hammers at the scene!” Makoto protested. “A perp that tried to cover their tracks – washed off their weapon. Another perp left theirs lying on the floor! That’s two fingerprints!”

Sakura crossed her arms and nodded slowly as she thought about it.

“… Indeed. One perp confident they had enough time to cover their tracks, and another frantic that they would be caught in the act. That is indeed two individuals. But why…? How is this possible?”

Kirigiri tucked a lock of hair behind her ear again.

“The Monokuma File never said Yamada died right away, did it? What if the killer stumbled on the scene shortly after Celes absconded from the scene? What if, despite her best efforts, someone noticed Celes making her way to the art room to begin with?”

Makoto was still floored at the route this trial was taking, but he managed to press on.

“Th-They… They would have **known** Celes had just finished ‘murdering’ Yamada…! But…! In that situation, wouldn’t the killer have first thought about alerting the rest of us?!”

Kirigiri frowned thoughtfully.

“… Maybe that had been the initial plan. Think about it – noticing someone acting suspiciously. Tailing them. Stumbling on their crime scene right after… I think anyone would feel compelled to report that.” Kirigiri mused, cupping her chin. “However… opportunity strikes. Yamada’s not dead. Not yet. But he’s going to be. Soon. The killer knows there’s nothing they can do to save Yamada, and as far as they know, Togami’s far gone. The maximum number of kills has been committed… But the killer sees a chance. Yamada’s **near** death, so there’s still a chance for them to escape. They want out of this school **now** , there’s no better time with the cash prize and the ‘plus one’ bonus incentive on the line, and they’ll take the first chance they receive. … And so they do.”

Everyone is stunned as they processed this. It sounded… It sounded so preposterous, like it would have a one-in-a-million chance of happening… And yet… if there was even the smallest chance…!

“B-B-Bullshit…!” Mondo breathed in astonishment, hand totally limp as he held it up in shock. “Who?! Who’s fucking left?!”

Makoto’s brow furrowed as he thought over the possibilities. Yamada dead. Togami faking it. Celes returning to the infirmary to cement her alibi. He and Maizono in that third floor classroom. Oogami and Enoshima together on the lower floors. Oowada and Fujisaki, too. The only ones left were… Kirigiri, who was investigating something unrelated to the case… And…

“Kuwata…!” Makoto cried out in disbelief. “I-It was you?!”

Leon recoiled at the unexpected accusation. He gaped in shock at the luckster.

“H-H-H-Huh?! M-M- **Me**?!”

Sayaka also gasped as she remembered the baseball star’s testimony.

“You were the one who told everyone about Celes…!”

Mondo’s hand twitched as he snarled in frustration.

“That’s right…! **You** said she didn’t wanna be ‘disturbed’ or some shit!”

Leon paled.

“I-I…! That’s what she said, dude!” He shook his head, eyes wide and filled with panic.

Fujisaki’s brow furrowed.

“B-But you said she was completely silent!” The programmer recalled, garnering a swear from the baseball star.

“S-S-So?!” The redhead argued. “You would think that, too, if a bitch like that ignored you!”

Sakura narrowed her eyes at the panicking athlete.

“Indeed, when I went to check, I got no response… I respected her privacy and desire to be alone, but that was largely because of what **you** told Oowada and Fujisaki!”

Junko scoffed in disbelief.

“Uh, **yeah**! If **I** was given the silent treatment, I’d at least check to see if the door was unlocked, and if she was still, y’know, **there**!”

Leon paled further.

“I…! I…! Aren’t you girls all against guys barging in and shit?! No way am I gonna pull an Oowada! I’m a **genteelman**!” The baseball star insisted. Mondo growled at the jab.

“You wanna die, fucker?!”

Makoto scratched his cheek nervously.

“Can’t say you’ve got the best ethics… I mean, wanting to perv on the girls at the pool, leaving me to referee that ‘contest’ with Oowada and Ishimaru…” The luckster grinned sheepishly. “… I can see you cracking the door open just to check she’s still there, and then slamming it shut if Celes chucked something at you… Well, if she was there…”

Sayaka, Junko, and Celes all narrowed their eyes at the baseball star as those various points were brought up. The redhead gulped before devolving into rage again.

“W-W-Well, fuck you, too!” Leon growled lowly. “I still found the bitch in the infirmary after the announcement!”

Celes still glared daggers at the all-star.

“That is true, but…” She trailed off suspiciously.

Sakura hummed as she reflected on it.

“… Your whereabouts are unaccounted for a certain period of time, Kuwata. Around the time of the murder, at that. Only Fujisaki and Oowada saw you, and then the next time you were seen was after the announcement…”

“Kirigiri was MIA, too!” Kuwata objected strongly. He snarled again. “If we’re gonna play this game of ‘alibi’, I’ll just throw it back at ya! **I’m not the killer**!!!”

“Kuwata…” Makoto murmured in anguish. He didn’t want to believe that either Celes or Kuwata was the murderer, but they were simply the likeliest candidates. Kirigiri had been helping move the trial along – not diverting them, like Celes had. And not quick to jump to conclusions, like Kuwata had been. At least Kirigiri promised to tell them about what she found; both Celes and Kuwata had refused to admit even the possibility that they might be the killer…

… Not that Naegi could blame them when Monokuma was going to execute the killer, if they were caught.

But even though he understood… He needed to have at least one of them cooperate. Because if even one of them could admit they killed – or **almost** killed – Yamada… Then they could finally lay this case to rest.

“Celes…”

The gambler placed her hands on her hips as she arched an eyebrow at Makoto, who had such anguish and pleading in his eyes.

“… Yes?” The gambler asked, having a feeling that she knew what he wanted.

Makoto took a deep breath.

“If… If I can prove Kuwata was involved with the murder… without your knowing… Would you tell us everything?”

Celes’s mouth became a thin line. Her expression remained carefully neutral, not betraying her thoughts and feelings just like Celestia Ludenberg had trained herself to do since starting in the gambling dens years ago. She made sure to make Naegi feel the weight of what she had already decided, before he had even asked; she made him wait uneasily, made him understand just how difficult this was for her.

“… If you fall short, you know that I will have nothing to confess.” Celes told him, in no uncertain terms. “But by all means, what evidence is there still left…?”

Makoto nodded slowly in acceptance. She had not refused… And that was good enough for him.

“Kirigiri…?” Makoto turned to the mysterious girl, swallowing thickly. “Do… Do you still have the thing Togami asked you to fetch from the crime scene?”

Kirigiri smiled knowingly at the request.

“… Of course. Didn’t I tell you? I’d have it ready when you needed it. And now seems like the perfect time to bring it up.” The lilac-haired girl dug into her pocket for a second, and then when she withdrew the hand she laid it out, palm facing up. Nestled in her palm were a few strands of hair.

Red hair.

“Wh-Wh-Where did you get **that**?!” Leon demanded, face going pale again.

At the heated question, Kirigiri smiled.

“In your rush to commit your crime, you failed to see the few strands of hair that fell on Togami. Lifting a hammer takes some heavy lifting, especially when it’s that size… And I imagine when you swung down, some hairs came loose as a result.”

Leon just continued to stand there, pale and tense.

“B-But Togami told you to go get it?! The hell would he leave it at the crime scene for?!” The all-star demanded. “A-A-And even if there **was** some of my hair there, that doesn’t prove anything!!”

“Togami left them on the blue tarp. Very hard to miss red hair on that.” Kirigiri smiled calmly. “Sometimes, leaving the crime scene just as we found it is the best thing we can do to ensure the truth is made known… If Togami had given it to me anywhere else, that wouldn’t have proven they were ever in the storage room.”

“Not to mention you were the last to arrive, after Celes.” Togami quipped, smirking at the all-star. “I highly doubt you were ever standing over by me or the tarp during the investigation. Or can anyone say otherwise…?”

“I…!” Leon tried to mount a comeback but failed. Even if he claimed Togami just fabricated it, he’d have no proof for it.

Apparently, no one else could say otherwise, either. And it was at this time, Monokuma stepped up again to take charge.

“Alright, alright! Break it up, you guys! Let’s get to **Voting Time** already~! I’m sure you’re all excited as **I** am~! Who will be chosen as the **blackened**?! Will you pick the right choice, or the dreadfully wrong one?!”

Slowly, reluctantly, they all cast their votes… Celes was the last one, and as she cast her vote, she looked over at Makoto with an unreadable expression. Once her vote was processed, the roulette fired up before resulting in triple faces of Leon…

And if the celebratory lights and noises from the roulette machine were any indication… They’d chosen correctly.

Leon Kuwata was the blackened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case you guys were missing the flashbacks, the next chapter's gonna have one for sure~ I wanted to fit one here, but... well... *laughs nervously* As you can see, this was a doozy of a trial. And we haven't even heard everyone's side of the story yet. We just got down to the nitty-gritty and worked out the who and how. ... Now we gotta hear the why~ 
> 
> I hope the plot twist didn't come too far out of left field. I tried hinting. But I obviously didn't wanna give too much away. XD Regardless, I hope you enjoyed the trial, even if it was just a little.


	14. Chapter 3, Part 7: A Next Generation Legend! Stand Tall, Galactic Hero!

_Piano music flooded the room as she shut the door behind her quietly. The bluenette grinned mischievously as she ducked down and slunk off to the side. The player was none the wiser as he continued trying, and failing, to sound any good. The player groaned in frustration as he leaned back and stopped playing for the time being._

_“Jeez, this is hard… Are guitars this hard to play, too?” The redhead grumbled._

_“Kinda, yeah. But you weren’t doing so bad!” Sayaka chirped in his ear, getting the baseball star to stand up in shock and whirl around to face the idol in horror._

_“M-M-M-Maizono?!” Leon laughed nervously as he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. The idol merely smiled mischievously in turn._

_“Just now… Why? Was this supposed to be a secret~?”_

_Leon kept rubbing the back of his head._

_“Well, I wanted it to be…! Ehe… I gave up the dream for music when you and Naegi bullied me out of it, but that doesn’t mean I was never curious! ‘Sides, there’s not a whole lot to do, now that we’re stuck in here…”_

_Sayaka hummed thoughtfully._

_“Well, you have a point there… Even though there’s five floors, there’s no telling how long we’ll be here. I just never expected you to try **piano** …” The idol smirked. “What happened to Mr. Punk Rock?”_

_Leon guffawed at the idol’s playfulness._

_“Jeez! Well, it’s not like there’s any guitars lyin’ around! And I’m not about to just try singin’ when someone could come walkin’ in like you did…” The baseball star grumbled._

_“I thought you **boasted** about your **amazing** voice~!” Sayaka teased, to which Leon rubbed his arm in shame._

_“Compared to you, it’s crap… Seriously, what was I thinkin’, Ultimate Musician…? I can’t even get the piano to sound right!” The athlete grunted sourly. Sayaka leaned over and checked the music sheet curiously._

_“Well, for one, you were reading it upside down. So of course it’s going to sound weird. Here.” She flipped the book and then lightly tapped out a few notes, which sounded much more pleasant and melodious. “Clair de Lune is a bit tough for a beginner piece, but I bet I could teach you~…”_

_She looked up when Leon had gone quiet. She blinked at the impressed look on his face._

_“Something wrong?”_

_Leon shook his head and grinned._

_“… Just thinkin’ how lucky Naegi is to have you! Guess he is the Ultimate Lucky Student.”_

_Sayaka’s smile softened._

_“To be honest… I’m the lucky one.” The idol smiled fondly. “Makoto-kun might be nearest and dearest to my heart, but I’ve enjoyed our school life together, Kuwata-kun! You and all our classmates.”_

_Now it was Leon’s turn to smirk._

_“Even Togami, Fukawa, and Hagakure?”_

_The idol giggled, and the athlete found himself transfixed, as always._

_“Yes, even them! Don’t you remember Togami-kun letting us all ride his yacht to one of his family’s private resorts? Or Fukawa writing you as a character in one of her novels?”_

_“Pretty sure the ‘love rival’ character losing out on the protagonist’s love interest isn’t something to be ‘happy’ about… And you know Togami, always likes showing off his wealth!” Leon dryly quipped._

_“You forgot the ‘love rival’ ended up finding another girl, Kuwata-kun…” Sayaka smiled softly again. “Maybe not the girl he wanted, but she was the one that he needed.”_

_Leon was at a loss of words at that._

_“… Maybe.” He muttered after a while. Life was certainly funny like that._

_He hoped he could be just as lucky. With the world having gone to Hell out there, who knew how life would turn out for them?_

~*~

“This probably goes without saying, but you guys hit the **jackpot**!” Monokuma gleefully announced as he leaped to his feet on his throne. “This round’s **villain** – the one who upstaged the devilish puppetmaster… is **Leon Kuwataaa**!”

As the bear belted out a laugh, everyone’s eyes were now on the baseball star, who was now pale as a sheet as he stood there, limply. Celes, who was standing closest to him, stood there rigidly, her face practically chiseled out of stone as she narrowed her eyes at the redhead.

“You… You really did kill that buffoon…” The gambler hissed caustically. All of those careful, meticulous plans and backup plans… all gone up in smoke because of this opportunistic bastard?

Leon’s pupils shrunk to pinpricks as he turned to Celes, mouth agape in horror.

“Sh… Shit…!” The verdict was still clearly dawning on him. The consequences that would come of it…

Mondo smashed his fist into his witness stand, rattling it with the force he put into it.

“You **bastard**!” Mondo roared, fist raised threateningly. “Was that fucking money worth so damn much to you?! Was it worth Yamada’s **life**?!”

It wasn’t possible for Leon to turn any paler… but somehow, he seemed to give off that illusion as he reeled back nervously despite Mondo being nowhere near him.

“Th-The money?!” Leon croaked out in dismay. He shook his head wildly. “Th-Th-That’s not why I did it…! I…! I didn’t…!”

Sakura bowed her head solemnly, eyes closed.

“Kuwata, you killed him. Monokuma’s verdicts have never been wrong…” The fighter intoned, gripping her elbow in frustration.

But Leon didn’t seem to be listening. He took a step back instinctually.

“Th-This… This is some kinda mistake!” The redhead insisted. He whirled on Monokuma furiously. “The **fuck** I’m guilty…! That bitch Celes did it!!! I…!”

Monokuma giggled at the abject despair the athlete was showing. His hands covered his mouth mischievously.

“You suuure you wanna go down that slippery slope, buddy~?” The bear teased. But Leon seemed to miss the connotations as he belted out a roar.

“Hell yeah…!!! That **bitch** left him there to die!” Leon’s chest moved up and down as he breathed heavily.

Monokuma rubbed the back of his head gleefully.

“Okay~! Since you all voted for Kuwata, I guess everyone but Celes and her ‘plus one’ are free to be executed~!” Monokuma laughed at the faces of shock and horror he got from that performance.

Leon shook his head furiously again.

“N… **No**! That’s not what I m-meant, you ass…!”

Monokuma tilted his head curiously at the athlete, paw raised to his mouth contemplatively.

“But the tribe has spoken! If you guys get it wrong, then everyone dies horribly painful and excruciatingly **despairful** deaths!” The bear cackled mercilessly. “Don’tcha just love happy endings?!”

Leon fell hopelessly silent at that, staring off into space mindlessly. Makoto frowned and breached the topic again.

“Kuwata… was it really you? Did you kill Yamada?”

Leon’s mouth opened and closed multiple times, warring with himself on how to proceed… Inevitably, the redhead caved. There was just no point, unless he wanted to take everyone down with him… And as tempting as that was…

“You have any idea… the **Hell** you guys put me through…?!” The athlete gnashed his teeth and clenched his fist tight. “There was clearly somethin’ up with that chick, and you all just… just… ate out of the palm of her hand!”

Kuwata snarled and looked to each of them in turn, saving his most livid stare for the gambler herself.

“ **I** found Yamada and Togami in the storage room, yeah! That’s right! I found **her** damn crime scene,” Leon pointed accusingly at Celes, looking around to the others. “And I figured it was already too late! We were gonna go through another damn circus, even though I **saw** the bitch…! And then fatso just **had** to open his eyes!!!”

~*~

_“M… Mister Leon… Kuwa…ta…” Yamada weakly raised his hand at the athlete, who shrunk back from the sudden movement._

_“The hell?! How’re you still alive?!” Leon exclaimed, gawking at the blood spilling from Yamada’s head. The otaku dropped his hand, spent of energy; he had a faraway look in his eyes._

_“Ahh… That… That’s right… We’re at… Hope’s Peak… I remember…”_

_Leon’s face scrunched up as he calmed down from his initial shock._

_“Damn… You really had me going there, tubs. So, you wanna finger that bitch in the trial, or should I? I mean… Between you and me…” The athlete trailed off leadingly. He knew he was being optimistic about Yamada’s chances of survival, but, he’d make sure the fatty made it. Better him than the scheming witch that skulked away…_

_Yamada sighed wistfully._

_“It’s all come back to me… I remember everyone.. before I met everyone… I can’t believe… such a plot twist…”_

_Leon’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion._

_“… You’re losin’ me, tubs. Though I guess I can’t blame ya with the crack to your noggin…” The athlete muttered._

_“It’s cold… has winter come…?” Yamada moaned, seemingly going from tangent to tangent. “Mister Leon Kuwata… you had best… prepare yourself, too… This winter is cruel and unforgiving… If even… Miss T… Yasuhiro succumbed… Then we are all…”_

_As Yamada blathered on, Leon sighed as the name ‘Yasuhiro’ came up._

_“You’re **really** losin’ it, if you think that idiot’s still around…” The athlete muttered, running a hand through his hair morbidly. Maybe he had been too optimistic, after all. “Hey, listen. Sorry to cut in, but if you’re gonna die, could ya leave one of those cliché messages in blood, letting us know who the killer is?”_

_He hadn’t meant to sound so uncaring… But honestly, if Yamada was at death’s doorstep, he might as well wait with the fatty in his final moments. Leon could admit he was a lot of things – a lazy genius. A flirt. A skirt chaser. But he wasn’t so inhumane to leave someone alone in their final moments. He just hoped someone would be with him, when his own time came…_

_Leon halted in his ruminating._

_Final moments…?_

_“… told you… it was… T... ak… Yasu…” Yamada weakly bleated out. But now Leon wasn’t completely listening anymore, either._

_“I **told** you, that idiot’s dead!” Leon scoffed as he tried to resume his previous thoughts. However, that proved to be a fruitless endeavor. He was already taking note of several things he shouldn’t be thinking about. _

_Two bodies. A would-be murderer just waiting for Yamada to kick the bucket finally. That bitch had even been kind enough to pull the strings for much of the investigation, so all eyes would be on her…_

_Leon’s gaze happened to fall on the far wall of the room, away from the door._

_Hammers…_

_“… ‘s not…!” Yamada weakly protested. “Miss… ak… Yasu… will win…! She will… use my life… **your** life… and achieve her dream, at long last…!” _

_Yamada sounded deliriously happy as he said that… happy and sad at the same time… But Leon wasn’t standing by Yamada anymore. The baseball star hefted a medium-sized hammer and took note of the weight… It would definitely take both of his hands for this sucker._

_Kuwata remembered all too well, during the first motive, how scared and panicked Maizono was after watching her video. He recalled how he, himself, felt how crazy this place had become after the killings started… Hagakure cracking had been a foregone conclusion, but Ishimaru? No amount of buddy-buddy feelings was going to stop that sadistic bear from breaking all of them, eventually. Even Naegi had to be realizing by now how hollow his hoo-ha friendship speeches were turning out to be. And if he wasn’t, he was being naïve._

_Leon scowled as the luckster flashed in his mind._

_“… I hear what you’re sayin’, Yams, I do…” Leon muttered darkly as he wandered back over, glaring down at the otaku. He turned Yamada over so the wound on the back of his head was fully visible. “… But you made your choice! I’ve got my whole life ahead of me! That **bitch** should have finished the job, but I’ll make her burn in Hell for it…! I’m getting me and Maizono-chan… **out of here**!!!” _

_Leon didn’t hate Naegi. He didn’t hate anyone. But he couldn’t deny the twinge of jealousy and frustration that Maizono was closest to that average kid, and she wasn’t budging in the slightest. Not that Leon blamed her, when Naegi was offering her peace of mind with his hope preaching…_

_In the end, though, what did that preaching accomplish? People still died. They move onto another floor, Monokuma whips out something new to break them, the cycle repeats. Naegi was a good short-term solution to everything; he did manage to keep a lot of them sane… But that was still just short-term._

_Maizono-chan deserved better than that. She deserved to be out there, rocking with her idol group. And if Leon could be that long-term solution, if he could be her hero, she might finally come around and fall for him!_

_It wasn’t the most rock-solid plan… but he was presented a golden opportunity here. He was gonna get out of there. And Maizono-chan was, too._

_Deftly, Leon swung the hammer down…_

~*~

Togami snorted in amusement at Leon’s recollection. He smirked and closed his eyes, arms crossed.

“Certainly, it wasn’t the most elegant plan… But for coming across a scene like that, you did an okay job!” The heir praised loftily. “If the other ‘victim’ besides Yamada had been anyone else but me… You might have had a chance.”

Leon glared furiously at the heir, from the other side of Celes.

“Fucker…!” The redhead growled.

Despite Togami being the first to speak up, not everyone’s attention was on him yet. Over by Makoto, Sayaka had a hand over her mouth in horror. After all, when explaining the events that transpired, Leon hadn’t gone light on expressing his feelings of frustration and jealousy.

“You killed Yamada so you could escape and take me with you…?” The idol whispered in a daze.

Leon sagged as her voice drifted into his ears. He turned to her, defeated. He certainly hadn’t wanted her to find out like this.

“Look, Maizono-chan, I know I’m not your most favorite person ever! But just look at the facts! We’re **trapped** in here… at the mercy of that **thing** …” Leon spat venomously, glaring daggers and pointing at Monokuma. “If you had the chance, wouldn’t you want to escape?! Go back to your idol group?! I know you probably weren’t going to kill anyone by this point… But Monokuma offered the perfect prize this time, and I couldn’t ignore it! So I just… did the right thing for both of us! Get us out of this hellhole!”

Sayaka looked like she was going to be ill, the more he reiterated his points. Not because of Kuwata himself, necessarily, but…

“B-But… Naegi-kun and everyone else…!” The idol protested. “Y-You were just going to… let them die…?!”

Leon ran a hand through his hair exasperatedly, huffing.

“I know, I know! Some people here don’t deserve it. Some people do.” The redhead gave Celes and Togami the stinkeye. “… But I had to try, Maizono-chan! If you hated me for the rest of eternity, that would’ve been fine! At least you would have been **alive**!”

Sayaka collapsed to her knees, still covering her mouth. Her arms eventually dropped as she had to use them to prop herself up from falling completely. The revelation was still slowly creeping on her. How close they had been… to indicting Celes. If they had got this verdict wrong, everyone but she and Kuwata would have been dead.

Naegi-kun would have been executed. Just so she… and Kuwata… could live. The thought of Naegi’s death pained her so much more than she thought was possible. The mere idea that someone as selfless, and kind, and compassionate as him dying for such a cruel and selfish cause… Sayaka just wanted to curl up and disappear. This was the very thing that she had desperately been trying to avoid ever since they learned all the rules of Monokuma’s Killing Game. Naegi-kun had been the sole reason she hadn’t snapped from the stress and anxiety yet, so Sayaka swore that she would never kill and abandon him.

… It was too bad she had overlooked the possibility of somebody else taking this decision out of her hands. Unable to hold back anymore, Sayaka cried in anguish. She numbly registered Makoto kneeling down to comfort her, and her body moved on its own as she threw herself at him and cried into his shoulder.

A little further away from them, Junko had gone stock-still as her eyes bore into Leon. It was definitely a glare that she was sending him, but somehow, this was different from the glares she had given people up until now. This was pure, unadulterated, scathing hatred and resentment. Sakura, who was standing next to Enoshima, could feel the pressure the fashionista was giving off in waves and quirked an eyebrow. This was not casual, civilian emotion that was rolling off of the strawberry blonde. Sakura had experience with concentrated, oppressing emotion like this before – many opponents she’d fought in the dojo had similar reactions to the one that Enoshima was giving. Though even then, her opponents had never been this… frustrated or angry, even after she’d defeated them quite handily. This was on an entirely different level, and it didn’t even appear that Enoshima was fully aware she was broadcasting her emotions so strongly.

That begged the question… just who was Junko Enoshima? If the pensive look on her face was any indication as she stared at Enoshima as well, Kirigiri seemed just as perplexed by this side of the fashionista that they hadn’t seen up until now.

Thankfully, they were spared from any of the others questioning it, as Celes finally spoke up after the longest time.

“ **I** deserve to die…?” Celes hissed venomously, raising her finger with the metal claw on it, snarling at the baseball player. “ **Fuck you**! If anyone deserved to escape from this hellhole, it was **me**! **I** poured all my sweat and tears into that murder plot, and **you** go and screw it all up because of one measly girl?! Does all your thinking occur between your legs?!”

Fujisaki furrowed his brow in confusion.

“H-Huh…? Y-You wanted to escape, Celes…? I thought y-you were always talking about us adapting, and…” He trailed off and flinched as Celes roared at him in frustration.

“ **Lying through my fucking teeth**!” Celes screamed, still bearing her snarl to everybody and raising her clawed finger. "Every waking moment, it was all I could do to endure this! More than every. Last. **One of you**!!! I wanted nothing more than to get out of this **hellhole**!!! You wanna know why?! **Do you**?!”

Celes preened as she folded her hands under her chin, abruptly beaming pleasantly.

“… Because I have a dream… And to live my whole life in this place was to throw away that dream. There’s no way… I could do something like that… My participation in the underworld gambling tournaments… betting my life for enormous sums of money… It was all… because of my dream…” Celes grew pensive as she held her hands in front of herself, staring down at the floor.

Leon had taken more than a few steps back when Celes exploded at him, but no one was paying attention that. Kirigiri cupped her chin as she, too, stared down at the floor.

“’Every last one of you’, hmm? I wonder. Does that apply to Naegi, as well?”

While this question seemed to bring confusion to most of them, Makoto frowned as he was kneeling down by the idol still, and the bluenette had tensed as this question was asked. Kirigiri never asked pointless questions. Which could only mean…

“Naegi-kun was different from all of you.” Celes snapped bitterly, still looking down, defeated. “It pained me to put my dream on hold and linger in here, but the more time I spent with him, it became imperative that I wait for an opportunity where I could escape **with** Naegi-kun… Because losing such a person of interest, it truly would have been unforgivable to allow Monokuma to execute him with the rest of you. I have servants all around the world, but he is to be my **knight** to stand above all the rest.”

Mondo scratched his head in confusion.

“Knight…? That kid isn’t…” He trailed off awkwardly. The biker **had** been the one to punch him and knock him out on their first day here; he knew better than anyone how ‘strong’ Makoto was. Well, physically, anyway.

“Not to mention you could find any peasant off the street who’s just like him.” Togami muttered, arms crossed and staring at the gambler shrewdly.

Celes scoffed at them.

“Masculinity? Pedigree? Irrelevant. Naegi-kun could be groomed in those inconsequential traits as we work toward my dream, if we so desired. What matters is that he can be trusted, and he is loyal and earnest. Unlike all of you, he has earned his C-rank title.”

Togami still seemed unimpressed, and most of the others still seemed annoyed or confused by Celes’s arrogance and hatred of them, but Makoto pressed on.

“What’s your dream, Celes?”

It had to be asked at some point… And he thought it best if he was the one to ask. To avoid pointless insults slung back and forth.

“To live in a European castle!” Celes beamed at him, content to share with him.

“A-A castle?!” The luckster gaped at the gambler.

“And to surround myself with the most gorgeous men in the world… dress them as vampires and make them my own personal secret service – doubling as butlers… Thus transforming my world into a world of perfect aesthetic decadence… My dream – and my objective – is to live out my life in that world… My life’s work!” Celes sighed contentedly. “Had I been able to add Monokuma’s ten billion yen to my underworld winnings, I could have achieved that… but, as it stands, with my failure this round, we will just have to work that much harder when we finally escape, Naegi-kun. If there is a silver lining to all of this… It is that we are both still alive, and it is still possible to escape and collect the funds we will need. I will not look a gift horse in the mouth, even if I am absolutely **livid** with this fool over here…”

Celes glowered at the baseball star, who still cautiously stayed several feet away from her and everyone else. Junko scowled and raised a twitching hand toward the gambler, though they were across the courtroom from each other.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re passionate about your dream! But you seriously tried to kill Yamada for **that** and throw us under the bus?! You’re no better than Kuwata…!” The fashionista growled in frustration.

Celes gazed at Junko with wide, faux-innocent eyes as she cupped a hand over her mouth.

“Are you saying I should feel guilty? You’re wasting your breath… I neither think nor feel anything about sacrificing others for my own sake. That is simply… how I was made. Ehehe… Isn’t it amazing how differences in morals can make a conversation so awkward?”

“You took the words… right out of my mouth…” Junko growled again.

“How can you be so calm?!” Mondo raged at the gambler. “You think that just ‘cause Kuwata stole your kill, you’re in the clear? Like hell we’ll let you just walk around after this!”

Sakura sighed and bowed her head solemnly.

“… As much as I hate to do it, I must agree. We **will** be restraining your movements from here on out. As you have demonstrated with your lack of remorse, you still cannot be trusted.”

Fujisaki hugged himself and shivered in fear as he looked toward Celes.

“Y-You’re horrible! How could you use Yamada like that and try to kill him?! Yamada never resented you for treating him like you did…!”

Togami scowled as he eyed the gambler.

“How did you convince that idiot to play along? As tempting as those incentives were, he had to recognize you weren’t his ideal partner to escape with. Or did you shoo him away when fraternizing with Naegi?”

Celes smiled innocently.

“I merely told him a lie on his level. I convinced him that we could take one more passenger with us when we escaped, and he ate it right up… Love truly is a powerful weapon~!”

She didn’t need to explain any more than that. Especially not in front of Monokuma. They all knew she was referring to Alter Ego, and Yamada had been quite taken with him. Fujisaki looked heartbroken that his program had been used as bait for a murder scheme… The way this murder played out, he was partly to blame for it, and Fujisaki was just devastated as he stewed in those self-deprecating thoughts.

Monokuma tilted his head curiously.

“Whazzat? Whazzat? I said **two** people could escape, not **three**!”

Everyone dutifully ignored him. They had to. Kirigiri pressed on.

“Your plan was always to stab him in the back, however. Leaving your accomplice alive would only serve to ruin you, in the end.”

“Me always black sheep… Me sad…” Monokuma wailed as he hung his head. Again, everyone ignored him.

Celes sighed breezily.

“I truly regret recruiting him now… He was more trouble than he was worth. Yet if I was to capture Togami, I would need some muscle, and it is not as if Oowada or Oogami were at my beck and call.”

Sakura raised an eyebrow in interest.

“Capture? Not kill?”

Celes beamed at the question.

“Killing Togami would have drawn all suspicion to me, as I was the first to bring it up in the cafeteria. No, Togami was but another disposable pawn. Nobody trusted him. Nobody befriended him. So if he claimed he was being set up by the ‘real killer’, who would believe him? As sloppy as ‘Robo Justice’ was, at least it made the scenario seem eccentric enough that Togami might try it to throw off our expectations. It’s too bad Yamada screwed that part up, too…”

Togami sneered at the gambler’s disappointment.

“And how exactly would that dolt have approached me otherwise? A note would be ominous enough to work on plebeians, but approaching me directly would give away your hand too much.”

“If someone told you that a murder occurred, you would have come running.” Celes blandly replied, garnering a twitch from the heir. “But because of his incompetence, I had to deal with the fallout of your fake murder. This really was a circus from start to finish…”

Togami darkly chuckled at the gambler’s expense.

“Forgive me for livening things up… It truly seemed too good to pass up, publicly humiliating you… That said, Kuwata’s interference was outside both of our calculations. But at least it kept things entertaining…”

Celes growled angrily.

“You can keep your entertainment… I would have much preferred getting out of here by now.”

They all settled into an uneasy silence at this. Kuwata, Celes, Togami… all of them, they had committed horrible acts. And in the end, it resulted in Yamada’s death.

“How can you and Togami… be so calm…?” Makoto asked Celes quietly, echoing Mondo’s earlier question. Celes giggled.

“For Togami, this is nothing more than a game. But as for me… I’m quite proud to say I’m among the most talented liars in existence. And not just to others – I can deceive my own emotions. Not just unconsciously, but consciously.”

“So you’re not afraid of getting tied up for all that shit you tried to pull?!” Junko cursed, glowering at the gambler.

Celes looked off to the side disinterestedly.

“No, I am not afraid. Do whatever you like with me – tie me up, torture me, starve me… In the end, I will still be alive, my dream attainable. That is all that matters. Ehehehehehehe… hehehe… heh…”

From his place by Sayaka’s side as he held her tight, Makoto frowned as he watched the girl he had believed he had been unravelling. It really was perplexing.

_‘Somehow, that laugh just now… feels like a poor imitation. She says that she can deceive even her own emotions. However… that, itself, is probably yet another lie. In the end, she can’t even fake her own laughter. She’s terrified of what everyone will do to her. She says her dream is still attainable, but she has to know that she’s at our mercy, and that makes her even more vulnerable than before. Anyone… would be absolutely terrified at being so powerless.’_ Makoto thought to himself calmly as he reflected on Celes. He might be making assumptions about her again, but his gut was telling him that he was pretty close to the mark on this one…

And then Monokuma’s next words brought the mood down even further.

“Ya done yet?! All right, then, let’s get going! It’s **punishment time** for the order disruptors, this round!” The bear cackled mischievously.

Everyone stared at Monokuma in shock and horror. Even Celes appeared absolutely taken aback.

“I… beg your pardon…?” Celes trailed off, totally at a loss. Monokuma just grinned at her.

“Well, you could argue that Yamada died ‘cause of both you and Kuwata, right?! Kuwata finished the job, but **you** started it!”

A ball of ice had formed in Makoto’s stomach.

“Wh-Wh-What are you saying?!” The luckster yelled out in fear. “Y-You said only the **blackened** gets executed…! E-Even if you say she was an accomplice…!”

It’s not like he wanted to throw Kuwata under the bus. And it’s not like he condoned Celes’s heartless cruelty. But Monokuma had set the rules, so he had to follow them, right?! Two executions at once would just be too much…!

Monokuma scoffed loudly at the luckster’s disbelief.

“What’d I **just** say, Unlucky Lad?! Fatty was practically dead when Celes left him! I think it’s **toootally** legit!” The bear cackled again, paws on his belly.

“N… No…!” Sayaka whispered in horror, eyes puffy and red from all her crying. Like Makoto, she hadn’t forgiven or forgotten what Celes did. Two executions was just too much. Too much.

“The **fuck** you’re gonna off that bitch?!” Mondo raged at the bear, fist raised threateningly. Sakura, too, seemed set to fight the Mastermind’s decision as well.

“If you try to go through with this, we **will** fight you… Mark my words…” The fighter rumbled lowly.

Kirigiri quirked an eyebrow at the bear questioningly.

“This does seem to go entirely against the rules you yourself set down… Like Naegi said, the accomplices do not suffer the consequences of a murder. You yourself declared that.”

Monokuma growled at all the resistance.

“Grr…! You all are a duplicitous bunch! Ya hate on her for betraying you, but then fight to keep her alive?!”

Fujisaki wailed.

“E-Even if she betrayed us…! She doesn’t deserve… execution…!”

Leon gave a shaky, sneering grin at them all.

“H-H-Hey… I’m all for taking this bitch with me! Go right ahead, Monokuma!”

“Are you **really** that petty?!” Junko exclaimed in disbelief. Leon scoffed at her.

“It’s **her** fault I’m even in this mess! So yeah! I can afford to be petty!”

Togami rolled his eyes.

“Oh yes… She held a gun to your head and ordered you to swing that hammer down… You never had a chance to change your mind and walk away.” The heir sneered at Leon’s quivering, snarling face.

“F-Fuck you…!”

Monokuma roared to get their attention.

“ **Enough**! **I** am the law here! And **I** say we get a two-for-the-price of one! You interfere, that will be considered attacking your Headmaster!”

A tense silence followed Monokuma’s harsh declaration. Though Mondo, Sakura, and Junko seemed poised to still defy Monokuma, the rest of them were unsure on how to proceed. Or in the case of Togami and Leon, they were frustratingly indifferent or eager to comply with the bear’s demands. Makoto squeezed his eyes shut tight as he held Sayaka close. Was this the end for Celes?

Monokuma seemed to calm down when no one spoke up again.

“Now then, I’ve prepared a special **punishment** for Celestia Ludenberg, the Ultimate Gambler, and Leon Kuwata, the Ultimate Baseball Star! Let’s get the ball rollin’, it’s **punishment time**!”

Celes sighed in defeat, and then beamed pleasantly at everyone.

“Have a wonderful life, everyone. And may we meet again in our next…”

Leon flashed the gambler the middle finger.

“I’m lookin’ forward to this…!”

Monokuma smashed a hammer down on the red button as it popped up next to his throne, and then the usual 8-bit screen appeared, announcing the event.

_“Game Over. Leon Kuwata has been found guilty. Commencing execution.”_ The screen said as it showed Monokuma dragging off Leon. And once those two were off-screen, a rope was lassoed around Celes, dragging her away as well. _“You, too, Celes_!”

Makoto’s blood ran cold as he watched the scene unfold. Celes was forced on top of a pile of… hay… and around her, a whole castle was erected, a crowd of Monokuma bears between Celes and her classmates.

_“A Versailles-Style Witch Burning”_

Celes appeared ecstatic at the regal execution. A Monokuma with a black-and-white execution mask struck a match, and lit the pile of hay on fire at the base. Slowly, the flames spread, climbing inch by painful inch closer to Celes who was perched at the top.

Enough time passed that the small collection of flames became a looming, foreboding inferno. And through it all, Celes stood just over the inferno, in the center of it, hands clasped in front of her with a gleeful smile on her face. Soon enough, the heat caused her to sweat, but even still, she did not drop her seemingly delirious smile.

… And then it happened. Alarm bells began going off, signaling a fire truck approaching at high speeds. The Hope’s Peak emblem was on the front.

“Help! Help! There’s fire! Help! Help! Help! Help!” The crowd of Monokuma’s was crying out, mockingly.

Makoto felt dread as he thought he knew just what was going to happen… Well, he was partly right.

The fire truck eventually reached a ramp that had been set up a short distance away from the pyre. It rolled over it, leaping up into the air and now aimed directly at Celes as it flew. Celes’s eyes widened in horror as her regal execution was about to be ruined. Being run over was the most common way to die. It spat on the very decadent image she had tried erecting for herself… Building it up painstakingly.

To everyone’s abject shock and horror, it was at that time Kuwata came swinging into the scene… A noose tied around his neck and slamming him harshly into Celes, smacking her off the pyre and just out of range of the inferno. Leon was stopped right where Celes had been moments ago, and now his horrified gaze was transfixed on the Hope’s Peak symbol as the truck smashed into him and ran him over without mercy…

Now outside the range of the inferno, Celes watched with muted shock and terror as the flames were put out by a Monokuma dressed like a fireman. The flames licking at her own clothes hadn’t even registered for her until Monokuma doused her down, too, clearly sparing her life and humiliating her at the same time. Around her, the castle collapsed, and the Monokuma bears walked away, bored. The fireman Monokuma tipped his hat at her, and then took his leave as well.

All the other survivors watched in stupefied states. The execution over, they were all dragged back to the courtroom, including Celes. Monokuma cackled at their disbelief.

“ **Psyyyyyych** ~!” Monokuma mocked them all. He grinned madly at Celes in particular. “Really had you going there, didn’t I? I tell ya, a hero’s work is never done! You should really be more careful when playing with fire or you might get **burned**!”

As the bear giggled uncontrollably, Sakura demanded answers.

“Why the change of heart…?”

Monokuma straightened up as he faced the Ultimate Fighter.

“Hmm…? Oh, that!” Monokuma rubbed the back of his head bashfully. “Well, I **did** have an execution for Kuwata all lined up, but I thought, why bother rigging **that** one up?! **Kuwata** didn’t set up this murder! He just butted in at the last minute! So I gave him a fitting end. That’s all!”

“You played with my life… for that…” Celes droned, completely drained from the ordeal. All of the fight had completely left her; she was painfully aware her life danced in the palm of this insane lunatic.

Monokuma shrugged uncaringly.

“Aren’tcha just grateful to be alive?! C’mon, show some gratitude to your dashing savior!” The bear taunted. “Oh, that’s right… you hate getting your face wet… Whoopsies! No wonder! You look like crap!”

A few groaned at Monokuma’s heartlessness. She did look all washed up now, but there was no need to rub it in. Makoto, however, for all that they had gone through, was just glad Celes was spared… Beside him, Sayaka was just as relieved; and that sentiment seemed shared by Chihiro, Junko, Sakura, and Kyoko.

“Lay off, jackass!” Mondo growled threateningly. Monokuma scoffed at the biker’s jab.

“Hey, hey! It’s not **my** fault you guys can’t let go of your connections to the outside world! You’re still young! You should value your lives a little more!” The bear rubbed the back of his head again. “Sheesh! How long’s it gonna be before you guys finally bear the **hope** of the next generation?!”

Fujisaki cried in confusion.

“Wh-What does hope or despair have to do with anything?!”

Monokuma sighed contentedly.

“Like it or not, you guys are all the embodiments of **hope**! And it is **my** preordained destiny to drag you guys down into the depths of **despair**! Kinda sad, but there’s no gettin’ around it!”

“Cut the crap, would you!” Makoto abruptly barked out, yet again fed up with Monokuma. “How long do you intend on putting us through this?! Just what the hell is your objective?!”

Monokuma huffed exasperatedly, raising a claw threateningly.

“Damn, you’re boring! Could you maybe stop asking that question?! Anyway… I believe I recall something curious Celes brought up! What was that other ‘passenger’ she tricked that fatso with?! Fatty shouldn’t have fallen for it since only **two** people could escape, this round!”

Several of them paled as Monokuma brought it up again. They should have expected it, but Makoto honestly didn’t have an idea how to deflect it this time. At this rate…

“I’ll answer that,” Kirigiri responded, drawing everyone’s attention. “… Just as soon as you answer a question of mine. What did you do? What did you do to my body?”

“What?!” Monokuma gasped, completely taken aback like the rest of them. But Kirigiri pressed on.

“Answer me… What did you do to my body?”

Monokuma sweated and released steam from his body in embarrassment.

“Ahhh… You’re makin’ me nervous… Wh-What did I do?! W-Waddaya mean?!” Monokuma fidgeted unconvincingly. “I have nooo idea… Not a cluuue…”

Makoto’s brow furrowed as he looked between Kirigiri and Monokuma.

_‘Wh-What did he do…? Monokuma did something to Kirigiri’s body? What does she mean by that…?’_ The luckster thought, baffled.

“Looks like sparks are startin’ to fly!” Monokuma rubbed the back of his head innocently. “I’mma slip out before things get bad… You guys continue enjoying life here in the academy, m’kay? If you get lonely, call me anytime. ‘Course, I won’t come, though! Upupu… Catch ya later!”

With all of that said, Monokuma vamoosed. Leaving them confused and in the throes of despair after the latest murder and trial. Makoto frowned and was about to ask Kirigiri what that was all about, but the mysterious girl beat him to it, running a hand through her hair.

“Let’s… return to our rooms. We can go over what to do in the morning. A new floor is going to be opened up, and we don’t want to miss any clues just because we’re exhausted…”

A few looked like they wanted to object – after all, as defeated as she was now, Celes was still a possible threat, and needed to be watched. But even Mondo and Junko were silent; they seemed to have a mutual understanding that this could wait one night… and it would be suicidal for Celes to pull anything now.

Even Togami, who wanted to confront Kirigiri about certain things, stayed his tongue. They all returned to the academy together, Celes staying to her corner of the elevator as they rode it up. They had the room now, with just nine survivors. And when they arrived at the first floor, they trudged to the dorm rooms at their own paces. Sayaka clung to Makoto’s side, and even Junko seemed to be hovering near him, protectively close. Mondo and Chihiro stuck close together, Sakura hovering near them. Celes, Kyoko, and Byakuya marched off ahead of the packs, or in Celes’s case, scurried off and slammed her room shut, once she was inside.

Makoto stopped just outside his room and looked down at Sayaka, whose head was nestled on his shoulder. He smiled at her weakly.

“… Wanna stay the night again?”

Sayaka rubbed at her puffy eyes and nodded mutely, too drained to speak right then. But Makoto also took the way she clung to him tighter as an affirmative, and he waved at Junko awkwardly before opening his door and closing it behind him and Sayaka. Unbeknownst to the luckster, three sets of eyes had been watching his door long after he’d closed it. Kyoko eventually sighed and returned to her room, resolving to report her findings tomorrow. Sakura, concerned for the luckster and idol, narrowed her eyes as she came to her own resolution as well. And Junko… She marched quickly to her own room and shut it quietly behind her, before leaning against it and sliding down to the floor desperately.

“I’m… I’m so sorry, Naegi-kun…” Junko spoke in a slightly different voice, squeezing her eyes shut tight and shaking her head rapidly. “I just don’t know what to do…! What do I do?! I-I can’t go on like this… But…!”

Junko relied on the door to keep her upright as she sat there, having a war within herself about certain loyalties. She couldn’t betray **them** … not now… But seeing Makoto so devastated over this latest murder, and the betrayals that came with it, Junko couldn’t say that she could go on like this, either. She wanted to support Makoto, too. No… that wasn’t quite right. She **needed** to help him. Makoto deserved better after all the backstabbings… But as stated, she couldn’t betray **them** , either. She was caught in the middle.

Things needed to change… And Junko just didn’t know how to do that.

~*~

Sakura sat on her bed, clenching her fists. She knew what had to be done… but she wasn’t foolish enough to confront Monokuma and end their partnership. The bear would just throw the hostages back in her face, and nothing would be achieved.

No. She needed to be much more daring than that. Monokuma and Togami both were waiting to use her secret against her to their advantage… She could not afford any wasted moves. And the others, they deserved better than half-hearted attempts.

If being a traitor was such a noose around her neck… Sakura would take Monokuma and Togami’s power away from them. No more secrets. She **would** inform everyone of her secret. And if she had to be restrained, much like Celes, then she would cooperate. Anything was better than this paranoia of someone stabbing them in the back or keeping secrets from everyone…

Sakura trusted Makoto and the others to stand united against the Mastermind, even if they rejected her help. She no longer feared rejection; other than Togami, they had all been willing to defend Celes, after all. Not just her. Not just Naegi. All of them had defied the Mastermind.

And Sakura knew they could do it again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to get into a lot more at the end... But frankly, I'm still hammering out the finer details for Chapter 4. And I don't want to leave a particular juicy scene here, only to change my mind about the plot later.
> 
> ... So we're stuck with this for now. :3 I have a vague idea on how to proceed, and now with Chapter 3 behind us, we can get to these lingering plot threads that have been around since Chapter 2~ In the lovely Chapter 4, no less. You alllll know how Chapter 4 turned out in canon. And don't think with Asahina's absence I won't find a way to make it heartwrenching. Despair knows no bounds! :3 I hope you enjoyed this at least a little bit. I've had Celes's execution theme going through my head like an earworm since last week, and it was fun picturing how Monokuma made Leon botch it up, though ironically saving Celes in the process.


	15. Chapter 4, Part 1: All All Apologies

_“… Boring.”_

_Mukuro’s brow furrowed as her unwanted companion leaned against the wall and watched her clean up the remains of her former senpai. Izuru Kamukura had always rubbed her the wrong way, and she still trusted him about as far as she could throw him – which was absolutely ‘not at all’. But still, in all their interactions, Kamukura had ignored her in favor of her sister._

_He didn’t seem to be ignoring her now._

_“What’s that?” Mukuro asked warily, keeping at her task of placing Nanami in the bodybag._

_“You are mind-numbingly boring.” Kamukura reiterated his thoughts, his intense red eyes boring into her. “Despite being **her** twin, I can predict you perfectly. Your thoughts, your actions… your death…”_

_Despite the heavy topic, Mukuro did not flinch or tense. As a soldier, she had to expect death could come at any time. If anything, Mukuro seemed to take pride as Kamukura brought it up._

_“I’ll die for Junko!” Mukuro boasted, zipping the bodybag shut. “It doesn’t take the ‘Ultimate Hope’ to see that!”_

_The soldier glanced over at Kamukura, who continued to just stare back at her with his emotionless gaze. It would have unsettled most other people, but Mukuro could say that she was adjusting to the imposing man’s presence. He still felt like a threat to Junko’s plans, at least to her, but he hadn’t stopped the brainwashing of the Reserve Course, and he hadn’t even stepped in when Nanami-senpai was killed… So she just chalked it up to the man being **capable** of being a threat, and not an active one. _

_Junko did always say to just shut up, stop thinking, and do her job, so Mukuro supposed she’d just keep doing that._

_“You are woefully blind…” Kamukura droned, staying in his crouched sitting position. “Enoshima is going to kill you. It’s inevitable. You’ll be thrown away like trash.”_

_Admittedly, Mukuro’s heart did clench at that thought. Not the first part, but…_

_“Like trash…?” Mukuro supposed it shouldn’t matter as long as Junko was happy and her plans succeeded, but… Somehow, she just couldn’t bring herself to be happy about that._

_“You have seen her whims.” Kamukura deadpanned. “You know how she treats you.”_

_“I’m her sister!” Mukuro protested. “J-Junko treats me that way because she gets Despair from it! I’m… I’m not **trash** to her!”_

_“Inconsequential.” Kamukura deadpanned. “If she had the Student Council butcher each other, turned her senpai into monsters, and plans to kill her classmates, what do family ties mean to Junko Enoshima? Absolutely nothing. You will keep denying and believing her right until she stabs you through the heart…”_

_“Shut **up**! Just **shut up**!!” Mukuro screeched, plugging her ears. _

_Why was this bothering her so much? Kamukura didn’t understand Despair. Only she and Junko understood! That’s… That’s what Junko said. Although now her senpai knew about the wonders of Despair, too, and were getting awfully friendly with Junko… Junko wouldn’t have time to boss her around all the time… And if Junko got bored with her…_

_… Just shut up, stop thinking, and do what she was told. As long as she did that…_

~*~

Makoto winced sympathetically as he felt the idol desperately cling to him in her sleep. It wasn’t by choice that they’d wound up in this… compromising position on his bed. When they returned here after the trial…

_“I’m so sorry, Naegi-kun…! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…!” Sayaka wailed as she hugged him tightly, crying onto his shoulder. Makoto, brow-furrowed, returned her hug comfortingly._

_“Sorry? For what?”_

_The luckster’s heart ached as the idol sobbed. He thought, and hoped, his friend had run out of tears by now… If only to lessen her pain and anguish, even if just a little. But apparently, she’d been waiting to unleash this torrent of apologies on him._

_“Kuwata… It’s my fault he killed Yamada and tried to escape…” Sayaka mumbled, pressing harder into him. “Celes set it up for him, but… Kuwata killed because of me. It’s m-my fault you almost died…!”_

_Makoto frowned as the idol got to the heart of the matter. Despite all that had happened, and how unrelated to everything she really was, Sayaka felt responsible for what a fan, an admirer, tried to accomplish. That was… just like her. From the way she placed the burden of her idol group’s fate on her shoulders to the way she blamed herself for a rival committing suicide, Sayaka was not one to let stardom go to her head. She charged headlong into the idol industry to escape loneliness, but she knew exactly what kind of power she had over others with her position. Sayaka knew that one could get drunk off this power and influence, and she kept herself in check; hell, because of her experiences, she even became jaded and wary of others…_

_Sayaka loved being an idol with all of her heart. And that’s why she took it so hard when things like this happened… She held herself personally accountable for her fans and admirers, because they wouldn’t have gotten out of hand or done things that couldn’t be taken back if she had been doing **better**. If she had been doing her very **best**. Makoto thought that was being way too harsh on herself, but there it was._

_“M-Maizono…” The luckster trailed off, wetting his lips as he tried to form his thoughts coherently. “Don’t let Kuwata… what he did… Don’t let it get to you. Kuwata… he chose to kill. It’s like Togami-kun said – Kuwata had the chance to back away, to come warn us… But he didn’t. No one forced him to swing that hammer down on Yamada’s head…”_

_Sayaka didn’t raise her head, and she didn’t loosen her grip on the luckster._

_“He wouldn’t have felt tempted if I wasn’t here…” The idol mumbled. Makoto rubbed her back soothingly._

_“If it wasn’t you, Kuwata would’ve killed for Enoshima, or Kirigiri!” Makoto smiled wryly as he reflected on the baseball star. “Kuwata wasn’t a bad guy, Maizono, but he definitely liked girls… Love, and especially lust, can make you do some pretty crazy stuff. And it’s not even his fault he ended up like he did! If it wasn’t for Monokuma, we’d all be living our normal lives. We might’ve even been classmates… Instead we’re stuck here, forced to play this sick game… It’s not fair, and I’m sorry you were dragged into it!”_

_Makoto’s cheeks flared up a little as he felt the idol cup one side of his face sympathetically. Even moreso when he found himself lost in her eyes, now that she was looking at him._

_“You don’t have anything to apologize for, Naegi-kun… None of this is your fault. And don’t you dare hold Celes’s actions over your head, either!”_

_Makoto sweatdropped as he used a free hand to scratch his cheek nervously._

_“That obvious, huh?” He hoped to keep her distracted, but the idol’s intuition was just too sharp._

_Sayaka poked his cheek stubbornly, a light scowl on her face._

_“It’s not fair to tell stop feeling guilty when you hold onto your own, Naegi-kun! Celes did all those things on her own. You had no way of knowing what she was planning.”_

_Makoto sagged slightly in defeat._

_“I know… But still, as a friend, if I’d just been more attentive, Yamada and Kuwata might still be here…”_

_“No. Buts.” Sayaka softly growled, poking his cheek again in aggravation. The luckster might have found it cute if the idol didn’t look to be on the verge of tears again. Graciously, Makoto conceded defeat and resumed their embrace, allowing Sayaka to let it all out again…_

They were both too conscientious for their own good, and they both knew it. Sayaka ended up crying herself to sleep in his arms over the whole ordeal. And Makoto, being too soft and caring, didn’t find it fair to wake her up just so he wouldn’t be embarrassed… Embarrassment was a small price to pay for a friend’s comfort.

That didn’t make it easier for him as he tried to take his impressionable mind off of the current arrangements and go to sleep… But as Sayaka’s grip around his neck grew tighter and needier, the luckster wrapped his arms around her waist and rubbed her back consolingly. This wasn’t something he was used to… But for her sake, he would put up with it. She’d been through a lot with this recent trial.

They all had. He just hoped this next floor would provide better answers and solutions than the last one. They needed a breakthrough now more than ever…

~*~

The next morning in the cafeteria, only seven people bothered showing up. One’s absence was expected… The other, they weren’t sure if she was going to show up. But honestly, considering everything that happened, it was probably for the best that they got the chance to talk about her fate without her there. It just… lessened the tension, even if just a little.

“We’re down to only seven… who’ll show up for breakfast.” Sayaka moped from her place next to Makoto. Mondo scowled as he looked around at those remaining.

“That’s half of what we started with… Feels like just yesterday everyone was still here.” The biker sighed dejectedly, rubbing the back of his head.

Kirigiri bowed her head slightly, giving a wry smile.

“I can’t blame you for feeling lonely.”

“Indeed…” Sakura agreed, arms crossed and eyes closed.

“Jeez!” Junko huffed, tilting her head slightly as she crossed her arms. “I get why we’re all down in the dumps, but can’t we look on the bright side for once?! Nobody here hates each other’s guts! We went through those trials and came out better for it! It sucks the others died, of course… But who here’s willing to betray the others just to get out? I’d say Monokuma’s gotta be scraping the bottom of his barrel of tricks by now!”

Makoto smiled thinly as Junko tried her best at cheering them up… While he agreed with her one hundred percent, or at least wanted to, the last trial was still weighing on his mind. To be fair, that motive was practically gift-wrapped for Celes in particular, but that just made Makoto all the more suspicious. Because as he recalled, the motive before that had been aimed at particular people, too.

If that bear could produce motives tailored for each of them, it really wouldn’t be long before another murder happened. Somehow, Monokuma knew them intimately enough to target their specific weaknesses. If they didn’t find a way to fight back, and soon, another tragedy would be on the horizon.

Mondo bowed his head before snapping back up with a cheesy grin and a thumb’s up.

“So… hey! Why don’t we just eat until we drop, huh?!”

Fujisaki blinked owlishly.

“Eat… until we drop?”

Mondo nodded sagely.

“Whenever the cops captured one of my boys, I know me and my crew would be down in the dumps for days, if unchecked. The way we resolved that… was eatin’ a feast to get our strength up and come up with a strategy to get our boys back!” Mondo grinned again as some memories sprang to mind. “Sure, some of my boys would go overboard and eat until they puked, but… Better puking than moping!”

A few of them sweatdropped as Mondo regaled them with that. For Makoto himself, the thought of eating until he puked sounded… unpleasant. That’s why he was never courageous to try food-eating contests.

Kyoko smiled, chagrined. She ran a hand through her hair casually.

“Well, it’d be bad if we actually ate until we dropped… We still have exploring to do, later.” She pointed out. Sakura nodded in agreement.

“Ah, yes – post-Class Trial reconnaissance. We should have access to additional areas now…”

Fujisaki brightened up as he leaned forward.

“Plus! Alter Ego’s almost done decrypting those files! We might be able to access them today, even!”

“Right! It’s not like we’re completely devoid of hope!” Sayaka put on her best smile. Makoto nodded, too.

“Yeah, gotta be optimistic…”

“Yep, yep!” Junko chirped, giving off a Cheshire grin. “Think happy thoughts, not depressing ones!”

“Like what we’re gonna do when we get out of here…” Mondo muttered. “I’m definitely gonna find out what happened to the Crazy Diamonds while I’ve been cooped up in here. Like hell I’ll just believe that bastard bear managed to take ‘em out! That was what he said in that video way back, but I don’t believe a lick of it! My bro made sure we were tough as nails, not even the cops could beat us!”

“What we’ll do once we escape, huh…” Sayaka murmured, shrinking in on herself a bit. Makoto frowned in concern and squeezed her hand reassuringly, a gesture that she gratefully returned.

He knew what the idol would want to do once they escaped. Just like Mondo, her motive video sparked some major concerns. He didn’t blame her for not wanting to get into it right now – it’d only open up old wounds.

“I-I do want to make sure my dad’s alright!” Fujisaki piped up, since Mondo brought up the videos.

“My family’s dojo…” Sakura rumbled in concern.

Junko shrugged nonchalantly.

“Well, I don’t really have any big plans… Guess I’ll stick with Naegi for funsies~!”The fashionista gave another big, wide grin.

Sayaka narrowed her eyes at Junko’s attitude. While it sounded playful and teasing… the idol could detect genuine interest in that plan, too. Junko was really considering it.

Sayaka knew other girls had the right to hangout with Naegi-kun and vice-versa. … Yet some part of her felt overprotective of her friend. Not just because she was concerned about Naegi-kun getting betrayed again, but because Enoshima was pretty attractive, and she knew that the fashionista clicked together pretty well with her luckster… as friends, of course. But if allowed, it might become more.

… The idol knew perfectly well **why** that pissed her off a little bit. She wasn’t oblivious to her own feelings for her luckster. Sayaka just never expected to feel so… territorial about him.

But then again… this had seemed to be the case with Enoshima for a while now, their mutual interest in Makoto. Those overprotective feelings only intensified because of the circumstances as of late. Sayaka wouldn’t deny him a friend, since he liked Junko well enough, and even she could admit the fashionista was decent enough… Sayaka just might have to renege on an earlier decision she’d made about all this.

It’d be a shame to lose Makoto romantically just because of her career and an **overly friendly** fashionista, after all. The more time she spent around him, the more certain Sayaka became that this wasn’t a simple crush lingering from middle school… And she could read Makoto well enough that the possibility existed that he felt the same about her.

The idol just needed to breach the topic with him, to find out for sure.

“I wish Togami and Celes could be here for this…” Sakura intoned, looking down contemplatively.

Mondo snorted.

“They’re just the bad apples of the bunch! We should just tie ‘em up until we figure out how to get out of here!”

A silence fell over the group as that topic inevitably came up. Not Togami, per se… But Celes. What to do with her.

“I don’t think restraining her will be necessary,” Kyoko cupped her chin in thought as she stared down at the table. “At least, not under most circumstances.”

Mondo’s hand twitched as he held it up.

“… Whatcha talkin’ about? You really wanna let her walk free?! We already know she doesn’t give a shit about us!”

Junko inspected her nails dully.

“He kinda has a point… I mean, if Kuwata hadn’t stolen her kill, Celes woulda been a murderer. In a way, she still is, what with the premeditating part… She just hasn’t succeeded yet.”

Sayaka flinched at the mention of the baseball star. She shrank in on herself to avoid potential stares from everyone, but she relaxed as Makoto laced his fingers with hers and gave a reassuring squeeze yet again. The idol smiled gratefully, if not a bit wryly, and gave him a reassuring squeeze in return. She was fine.

“I-I don’t think we should do that…” Fujisaki mumbled, dipping his head as Mondo looked to him in confusion. Kirigiri crossed her arms and shot the biker a look.

“Oowada, she might have proven that we can’t trust her, but Celes is done. She lost her opportunity, and her intentions have been laid bare. Further restraining Celes will only incite her. We have to give her some space… But you do have a point that she can’t have complete freedom.”

Sakura took a deep breath as she opened her eyes again, keeping her arms crossed.

“You’re proposing nighttime vigilance, I take it…”

“Isn’t that what you proposed to Naegi, not so long ago?” The mysterious girl quirked an eyebrow at the fighter, who said nothing back as the others processed this suggestion and looked to her and Makoto. “Celes needs to be watched, but I’m willing to bet that we can drop our guard a little during the day. After all, chances are that we’ll be together in groups or pairs.”

“Except for Togami,” Junko piped up again. “But it’s not like he’ll drop his guard around her after what she tried to pull, so, I guess it’s a wash. Do you really think nightguuards are gonna work, though? Monokuma might get bored again…”

And they all knew what happened when the sadistic bear got “bored.” Kirigiri just nodded her head slowly.

“It will suffice until Monokuma’s next incentive. Remember – this is only precautionary. It’s doubtful Celes will try anything with Yamada gone and the rest of us aware of her true nature. We just can’t allow her the benefit of the doubt.”

Makoto frowned as they all seemed to agree on this course of action for now; Sakura and Mondo agreed to be the hall monitors, with Kyoko willing to substitute for either of them at any time.

_‘Celes’s true nature…’_ The luckster echoed in his mind, having his own mixed feelings about the gambler. Makoto knew that he would have to confront her at some point… He just wasn’t in the right state of mind to do so right now.

They… They needed some time apart. Not for too long, just… He needed to work out his own feelings before confronting her. Makoto didn’t want to lash out at her pointlessly and say something he’d regret. Celes deserved better than that.

… To be honest, though, he wasn’t sure what she actually “deserved”…

~*~

_‘The fourth floor opened up this time…’_ Makoto noted after they all made their way upstairs after breakfast. _‘I hope we can find some answers this time… No, I **guarantee** we will…!’_

The hallways on this floor didn’t just go in one straight line. One branch seemed to go around in a rectangle, while two other branches led to rooms that didn’t seem to be normal classrooms. The stairs that led to the fourth floor were directly across from more stairs that led up to another floor, meaning there would be more to explore.

Hopefully there wouldn’t be another murder to cause that gate to open.

“Damnit… locked tight.” Mondo grumbled as he attempted to open a door with a sign over it that read ‘Data Processing Room’. Makoto and Sayaka watched him stalk off around the corner to the other classrooms, and decided to let him have that side.

“Hey, Makoto… Let’s go check out this room over here!”

Seeing Maizono point to a set of double doors that was down another branch hallway across from the Data Processing Room, Naegi shrugged, and they went to check the room out. When they entered, Sayaka gasped in amazement and bounced on her heels a little. Makoto chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. Of course she’d be excited about this.

“Makoto, they have a **stage**!” Sayaka let out breathlessly. “A **music room**!”

“It looks less like a classroom, and more like a concert hall.” Makoto mused appreciatively. There was a recording booth behind a nice set of windows, lots of chairs, and a magnificent grand piano set up on the stage. And like a lightbulb, an idea entered his mind as he considered the room. “You should hold a concert in here for everyone, y’know? I bet that’d be a great way to connect with everyone!”

At his suggestion, Sayaka’s eyes sparkled, and without thinking she excitedly planted a kiss on his cheek, not even blushing as she withdrew due to how pumped she was by that idea.

“You’re absolutely right…! I haven’t gotten to sing on a stage since coming here, and it’s been driving me **nuts**!”

As she began to run off toward the sound booth, Makoto called after her. Even in his frazzled state from the abrupt sign of affection.

“H-Hey! Where you going?!”

“I’m gonna see how well-equipped this room is! You can go ahead and tell me about the other rooms later!” She called back.

Makoto chuckled weakly and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Seeing Maizono anything like her usual bubbly idol self… It warmed his heart to see she could still be happy, even after the last trial.

… Though that kiss had really come out of nowhere. The luckster numbly rubbed the area on his cheek again, his mind debating on whether that had really happened or not. Shaking his head, he just smiled thinly and reined his excitement in. Sayaka had just done that in the heat of the moment. It didn’t mean anything more than that. There was no way she’d fall for a regular joe like him. And even if by some miracle she did, there was no way he could take advantage of her; there was plenty of worthier guys out there, and there was her career to think about, too!

“Seems like she’s back to her usual self.” A voice remarked casually, snapping the luckster out of his dazed thoughts.

He blinked as he registered Kirigiri approaching. Makoto rubbed his head bashfully.

“Yeah… I’m glad. This room’s going to do wonders for her. She sometimes sings to me when we’re alone, but if she gives all of you guys a concert, I think she’ll feel a lot better.”

Kirigiri simply smiled and said nothing more on it. Though her eyes did become slightly more serious.

“… Naegi. I should probably tell you about what I found, now that we have a moment.”

Makoto blinked as he tried to process Kirigiri’s words and shift in mood. What she found…?

“Oh…!” The luckster felt like facepalming. “You mean where you were during the investigation?!”

He’d totally forgotten about that! Come to think of it, he was kinda surprised no one brought it up at breakfast. But then again, their minds had been on other things…

“There’s a secret room in the boys’ bathroom on the second floor.” Kirigiri told him point-blank, not beating around the bush. “I don’t know what it’s for yet, but it was well-hidden.”

“Do you think the Mastermind uses it…?” Makoto wondered with a furrowed brow. Kirigiri shrugged neutrally.

“They might have at one point. It’s hard to tell who used it and if it’s seen any recent use at all. There’s a desk and cord to allow a computer access to possibly the school’s network, but no clues who it all belonged to.”

Makoto deflated slightly as Kyoko said all that.

“Oh… So was that the only stuff in there?”

Kirigiri shook her head, to the luckster’s surprise.

“There’s a shelf with a number of files and papers… I figure there must be a clue in there, but I couldn’t stay in there long enough to find out. Aside from the investigation going on, I couldn’t afford to let Monokuma know I’d found that room. There’s no camera in that room, after all.”

“N-No camera…!” Makoto echoed, feeling both excited and scared of the possibilities for how they could use that room. Chihiro could easily make the most use of it, since he had Alter Ego… But would Monokuma find out if they managed to get onto the school’s network? Did the Mastermind even know about that room? And what about those files? If the Mastermind didn’t use that room, then whose files were those…? What were they for?

“I hope now you see why I was reluctant to tell everyone about that room.” Kirigiri sighed patiently as the luckster processed all this. Makoto blinked owlishly.

“Huh?”

“Think about it, Naegi.” Kirigiri remarked, crossing her arms. “Now that I told you about that room, what’s the first thing you want to do?”

Makoto dipped his head somewhat in shame as that came easy.

“… Go check it out…” He mumbled.

“And if everybody goes to check it out, Monokuma will definitely discover it, if he doesn’t already know about it.” Kirigiri reasonably argued.

Makoto clenched a fist in slight frustration as he looked up in determination.

“We can’t keep this from them! They deserve to know, too! I mean, Fujisaki alone…!” He trailed off as Kirigiri shook her head slowly.

“I won’t keep the room a secret forever. I just want to inspect everything I can before bringing the others into the loop… This is a crucial lead that we can’t let slip away, Naegi.”

Makoto shrank back as her intense stare felt like it was piercing his very soul. He knew she had a point… He knew Kirigiri was doing this for everyone’s sake. And yet…

“If you do it like this, they’re going to suspect you…” After what Celes and Togami did, he knew that Oowada and Enoshima, at least, were going to be suspicious. Maizono might get suspicious, too. Oogami and Fujisaki would probably be more understanding, but…

“It’s a risk I’m willing to take.” Kirigiri stubbornly insisted. Makoto narrowed his eyes in frustration.

“Well, I’m not! If you won’t let me tell the others… At least let me check it out, too! Then you’ll have my word backing you up!”

Kirigiri was silent for a while after that, and the luckster feared she would refuse… But the mysterious girl eventually nodded reluctantly.

“Fine… But you’ll have to do it tonight. I was planning on looking at it again tonight, but I’ll hold off so you can see it for yourself.”

Makoto winced as he registered just what he was signing up for… He could keep a secret when it mattered, but that didn’t make it easy. And that didn’t even get into the fact he’d have to lie to Maizono, if she needed to stay the night with him again… Maybe he could squeeze the trip in just before nighttime, so that he wouldn’t worry her…

… This was gonna be tough.

~*~

Mondo and Sakura checking out the two classrooms on this floor, so Makoto left them to it. Fujisaki had found the chemistry lab, which was the closest room to the closed off stairs that led to the fifth floor. The programmer was apparently nervous that someone might use the poison left on a section of shelves, but Naegi assured him they’d be okay. There were nine of them left, and while they didn’t all get along, most of them did. Monokuma would have to coerce someone into killing again… That’s what Makoto wanted to believe, anyway.

“You’re not going to be able to get in there.”

Makoto froze midstep at the voice behind him. Turning around, his eyes widened as he confirmed it was the Togami heir who had spoken that warning. The luckster had been about to check out the remaining rooms on the fourth floor, and the one at the end of the hall had him the most curious, since it was marked as the Headmaster’s office.

“T-Togami?!” Makoto yelped, taking a step back in shock. Togami rolled his eyes, crossing his arms.

“In the flesh.” He dryly quipped. “I’m serious about that room, though. The Headmaster’s office is locked tight, just like the Data Processing room. What an annoying farce.”

Makoto’s brow furrowed as the heir continued talking plainly, as if this whole thing wasn’t a huge deal. As if he hadn’t faked his death and helped stir up confusion that resulted in the deaths of two people…

“Wh-Why tell me…?” Makoto couldn’t help ask. He knew he was a far cry from understanding the scion by this point, but he needed to make sense of what he could…

Togami rolled his eyes again.

“Because watching you waste your time wastes **my** valuable time…” The heir drolled. “Besides. You can make yourself useful for once and explain what Kirigiri has been hiding. She won’t tell me.”

Makoto’s brow furrowed at the peculiar demand.

“What Kirigiri’s been hiding…?” The luckster echoed. Togami sneered.

“It’s no use denying it. I saw her enter the music room a short while ago, and not too long after you came out. She passed on **some** key piece of information… Otherwise, she wouldn’t have missed out on the investigation in its entirety. I’m not a fool, Naegi.”

Makoto frowned and narrowed his eyes.

“Even if she did tell me what she found out, why should I tell you? You haven’t wanted to work with us! Why do you even want to know?!”

Togami scoffed, unimpressed.

“Monopolizing information isn’t very **fair** … I mean, **I** have no qualms about exchanging information with you. Why should you care? It’s a legitimate business exchange, nothing more.” The heir tilted his head back slightly, mockingly.

“Y-You learned something?” Makoto asked in disbelief. Togami snorted derisively.

“Naegi, the gap we have between us in terms of the knowledge I hold is deeper than the Mariana Trench. This applies to knowledge in the Killing Game, so yes. I know some things you would be **very** interested to know… **if** you told me what Kirigiri dug up.”

Makoto clenched his fist as his mouth became a thin line. His head dipped as he struggled with himself. Eventually he shook his head.

“Sorry, Togami… No deal! I promised Kirigiri I wouldn’t tell anyone yet!” The luckster declared passionately. He was confused when Togami said nothing for a while and then just turned on his heel to leave.

“You’ll regret rejecting my generosity, Naegi… I don’t make offers twice. And honestly, this was just your chance to cough up the knowledge willingly… Because I **will** find out. Kirigiri may very well be an ironclad safe when it comes to secrets, but she chose to impart one to you. That just makes it open season for me...” Togami began to stalk off. “But to throw you a bone since you’re going to slip up later, I’ll tell you Alter Ego’s done with those files. I had a peek while you all had your breakfast.”

Makoto felt tense as the heir walked away, but he also couldn’t deny that he felt elated they’d get another lead… Yes, it was troubling Togami handled Alter Ego without their knowing, but if all he did was hear what information the program had decrypted, Makoto couldn’t really cry foul play. Fujisaki would be able to tell if Togami had done anything underhanded to the laptop.

… It still bothered Naegi that Togami was determined to make him break his promise to Kirigiri for Togami’s gain… But unfortunately, this seemed to be who Togami was.

Just what was it going to take for Togami to start working with them?

~*~

There was only one room he hadn’t checked yet, and that was the one with the entrance marked as the staff room. When he got in there, Junko instantly brightened.

“Heeey, Naegi! I found somethin’ really interesting you’ll wanna see~!”

Makoto looked around the room, seeing potted plants at all the desks for presumably the staff of the academy. Beyond those, the room just looked like a regular staff room, though if Junko said she found something, then she probably did.

“What’s up?” As he made his way over, he froze when she held up another picture, like the one he and Sayaka found in the art supply room when the third floor was opened to them. This one was different, of course. It looked like it was taken at some school assembly or sporting event, since everyone was sitting in bleachers.

Naegi didn’t recognize a lot of the faces pictured, but he did recognize a few, and they made him wonder what was going on. Hifumi was running around with what looked like pamphlets, and Ishimaru was chasing him around. It looked like Ishimaru had run past Kuwata, who appeared annoyed that he was bumped into, and Asahina was off to the side, presumably cheering Yamada or Ishimaru on.

“What the heck?!” Makoto couldn’t help but let out. That first picture just had Hagakure and Fukawa, but now all the victims and killers of the second and third trials were captured on film, and they looked… just like normal high schoolers. Like they hadn’t gone through traumatic experiences in here.

Had they known each other before entering the academy?

“It was like the one interesting thing in this room,” Junko drawled. “I guess you and Maizono weren’t kiddin’ when you found that one pic… It’s so weird, though! Why’s that bear leaving these out for us to find?!”

“Are they even real?” Makoto had to wonder.

And just like those words were a summoning spell, Monokuma appeared looking highly amused as he swiped the picture from Enoshima’s hand.

“Yohoho! Forgery this, conspiracy that—what are you, twelve?! Don’t say you think the moon landing was faked, too!”

“Then, what? You’re saying it’s **real**?” Makoto just couldn’t help being skeptical.

“I’m so honest, if they had a Nobel Veracity Prize, I’d win that baby easy as pie.” Monokuma proudly proclaimed. He then clutched his belly as he laughed. “ **Psych**!”

“Just tell us if it’s real or not!” Junko demanded.

The monochrome bear made an irritated noise.

“Oi vey, you kids… I can see you’re trying oh-so-hard to make sense of things… but that’s no good. No no good good. It’s nonsensical to try and make sense of the senseless. **The picture’s real**. Nothing more, nothing less. Upupu!”

Having spoken his piece, Monokuma departed without explaining anything. Makoto and Junko both looked after him in aggravation.

“So that picture… **isn’t** fake?” Makoto wondered.

Junko sighed.

“I dunno… I wouldn’t take that bear at his word until we can confirm it for ourselves… I mean, he’s lied about so much already, right?” She tilted her head curiously at the Luckster.

“I guess…” He sighed in aggravation. “I just wish things would start making sense already!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some details are still being ironed out for the murder this chapter, but we've got time here. There'll be more character interactions to go through, and not all of it friendly. Some warm and fuzzy, but some cold and squirmy... Yay for secrets and different ethics and opinions! XD I hope you guys like it so far. This chapter was fun. :3
> 
> Addendum, 07/05/2020: .... And now the next chapter's basically ready for posting. XD But I'm gonna sit on this... Because next chap has some pretty heavy stuff. And it's best to have something to look forward to every week. :3 Maybe I'll get a backlog of chapters going, and resume twice-a-week postings. Maybe. For now, let's just do weekly. It'll give you guys the most time to puzzle over investigations when they happen. And gives me breathing room in case work overwhelms me and I need downtime. At least it's the second half we're dragging out~


	16. Chapter 4, Part 2: All All Apologies

_“Wh-Whoa…!”_

_Mukuro slowly blinked as the familiar startled noise registered in her ears. Automatically, her eyes panned around, locking onto the source: a certain unlucky boy, slipping on something at the top of the stairs. The slip caused him to plunge and tumble down the stairs at a pretty impressive rate…_

_“…” Mukuro’s eyes narrowed as her mind made the calculations._

_Junko huffed as she placed her hands on her hips and turned around to face the soldier, irate._

_“Hey, are you even listening to me, you ugly sow?!” The fashionista blinked as she processed Mukuro holding Makoto Naegi, bridal style, with a nonchalant look on her face._

_Makoto chuckled weakly as he waved at Junko bashfully._

_“H-Hey, Enoshima… Guess I took a spill.”_

_“…” Junko just **stared**._

_Mukuro tilted her head innocently._

_“You were saying Kuwata should learn to keep his hands to himself, or you just might keep your promise of introducing him to some real freaks in bed – aka, that yandere you met in the red light district that one time.”_

_“…”_

_“I was listening!” Mukuro insisted fervently._

_Junko said nothing, just turned on her heel and letf with a blank face. Mukuro’s brow furrowed in concern, and she looked down at Makoto apologetically._

_“Sorry, Naegi, I think I should go…” Mukuro put him down and patted his head awkwardly._

_“H-Hey, no problem! Thanks for catching me, Ikusaba!” The luckster smiled gratefully at the soldier, which earned a shy smile from her. Just as she was about to run off, Makoto called out to her. “Um… Was the thing about ‘knowing a yandere’… was that true?”_

_Mukuro blinked slowly. Then she remembered… This was Makoto. He didn’t know the variety of people she and Junko were acquaintances of._

_“She does know a yandere.” Mukuro answered plainly, unsure really how else to say it. She tilted her head as Makoto visibly shuddered._

_“W-Well… Just make sure she doesn’t go overboard with Kuwata, okay? He’s still our classmate.”_

_“I think if we told her to stop, Junko would go through with it, though.” The soldier pointed out. Makoto sweatdropped and scratched his cheek._

_“Y-Yeah… I guess she would…”_

_An awkward silence settled between them. Then, Mukuro spoke up again._

_“… Well, bye.”_

_The soldier waved before running off, having an inkling of where Junko was headed and already running calculations in her head on any potential shortcuts so she could catch up. Makoto smiled wryly as he watched her go._

_If he only knew the things Junko was willing to do…_

~*~

Sometime later, the seven of them regrouped in the cafeteria. Fujisaki started them off.

“Th-There’s a chemistry lab on the fourth floor! It has some huge cabinets containing medicine…”

Sakura nodded sagely, having inspected the lab herself after testing the steel plates on the windows.

“Not just that. Supplements, nutrients, everything we could possibly ask for! There is even high-quality protein in stock. This will help you immensely in your workouts, Fujisaki.”

The programmer smiled nervously but nodded in acceptance.

“I wish that was all the chem lab had… But there was poison there, too… There were labels so you could clearly tell what they are and what they do…” He hung his head in shame at the discovery. Mondo’s hand twitched violently at the revelation and he gritted his teeth.

“Fuck…! We gotta lockdown that room! No fucking way is Celes allowed anywhere near it! And I swear, if Togami already swiped something…!”

Makoto closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“At the very least, he’s checked out the fourth floor, so we can probably assume he at least knows about it…”

Kirigiri nodded in agreement, smiling calmly, if not with a bit of chagrin.

“It wouldn’t have taken him long to find it, anyway. No point in stressing over it – we’ll just have to be careful and keep an eye on the shelves. It’s all we can do.”

“Fuck…” Mondo cursed again, pounding his fist down on the table furiously.

A brief silence fell over the group as they processed this information. Then, timidly, Sayaka spoke up.

“W-Well, it’s not all bad! There’s a music room, and it’s fully functional! I… I’d really love to put on a show for you guys, if you’re okay with it!” Her closed-eyes smile was both hopeful and a little pleading. And yet, it seemed to go over well.

“I’ll be there! Just tell me when!” Fujisaki promised. Sakura closed her eyes and smiled pleasantly as well.

“I would be honored…”

“No objections here!” Junko flashed a peace sign and a Cheshire grin. Kirigiri nodded in silent agreement from where she was sitting, and Oowada rubbed the back of his head bashfully, unable to turn the idol down, himself.

“I guess it’s unanimous, then.” Makoto grinned reassuringly at the idol, who smiled gratefully back at him.

Mondo kept rubbing the back of his head.

“Well… While some rooms were open, there were a couple of locked ones.” The biker muttered.

Makoto nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, the Data Processing room and the Headmaster’s office.”

“The Headmaster’s office?!” Junko exclaimed. “There’s gotta be tons of clues in there! If we could just unlock it, we could take a look around…!”

“Who gives a crap about locks?” Mondo snorted. He pounded his fist into his palm eagerly. “Gimme five minutes! I’ll pop that sucker open no problem…!”

No one pointed out that they also had Sakura to help him bust it down… But that’s because **he** appeared so suddenly.

“I **heard** that!” Monokuma spoke up in a singsong voice.

Mondo recoiled back in shock.

“Whoa! The fuck?!”

“I heard what you said!” The bear repeated himself mockingly. “’Monokuma has some fine, fine birthing hips, dude. I’d just love to tap that fluffy round ass!’”

Mondo snarled.

“The **hell** I did…!”

“Then what **was** it you said?” Monokuma growled back. “Surely you weren’t hatching a scheme to bust down the Headmaster’s office door. Yeesh, what do you think this is, School Wars? Trying to break down doors… The Headmaster’s office… is **my room** , you know? And you wanted to try to break in? Make a bear mad, and I promise you’ll regret it. We’ve got hella bacteria on our claws.”

Mondo growled back defiantly.

“You think I’m scared of you, fucker?! I don’t give a damn about your ‘feelings’…!”

“O-Oowada, no…!” Fujisaki cried out, knowing the consequences of attacking Monokuma. Mondo should have known as well, but he looked to be frustrated as hell, so there wasn’t negotiating with him.

Monokuma sighed airily.

“I didn’t wanna tighten you guys’ leash anymore, but if that’s how you’re gonna be, what choice do I have?” He whirled around to face them all again, raising his paws angrily. “I’m gonna have to **make a new rule**!”

“You’re… making a new rule?” Makoto asked warily.

“I’m adding this to the school rules: **‘You are forbidden from destroying locked doors!’** ” Having spoken his piece, Monokuma just left without another word.

“ **Fuck** …” Mondo swore loudly.

“The fact that Monokuma felt it was necessary to make a new rule means…” Sakura intoned. “… we were likely not mistaken in thinking there is **important information** in the Headmaster’s office.”

Makoto rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

“Either way… since it’s now against the rules, there’s nothing we can do…”

“Darn it…” Junko tsk’ed in frustration.

“Continuing on with the report…” Sakura picked up the discussion again. “Just like the other floors, there are thick, immovable iron plates mounted in the halls and classrooms… Unfortunately, escape from the fourth floor will be very difficult. Not that anyone expected otherwise…”

Mondo growled lowly.

“Well, I guess that’s it… Did we miss anything?”

“Well, there was a staff room, too…” Makoto answered. “But that’s not what I wanted to report, actually. You see… Enoshima and I found another picture in that room, it was just like the one we found on the third floor.”

Sayaka covered her mouth in shock.

“Another one?!”

“Yeah!” Junko nodded firmly. “I didn’t see the one you guys saw, but this one had Ishimaru, Kuwata, Yamada, and Asahina in it!”

“Asahina?” Sakura grew more attentive as her friend was brought up after all this time. Mondo squeezed his eyes shut tight and shook a fist in frustration.

“Bro…!”

“It looked like they were at some sporting event.” Makoto remarked, cupping his chin. “Yamada was passing out pamphlets and Ishimaru got mad about it, chasing him… Kuwata was annoyed when Ishimaru bumped into him, and Asahina was cheering them on. It looked like something you’d see in a normal high school life!”

Fujisaki’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

“B-But how could something like that…?”

Mondo scowled deeply.

“It… had to be fake! Bro wasn’t no liar! He didn’t **know** any of you guys!”

Sakura, too, did not look completely convinced.

“True… And none of the others seemed to indicate they had met before… Asahina would have been quite vocal about it!”

“But what if they’re really **real**?” Makoto pressed desperately. “It would mean everyone in the pictures knew each other, and there’s a connection we don’t know about yet…”

Sakura, Mondo, and Chihiro still seemed doubtful. Sayaka and Junko believed him, having been there when he saw the photos. Kirigiri smiled mysteriously as this was brought up.

“Maybe it’s not as crazy as we think… I had thought Monokuma had done something to just me, but what if it had been all of us?”

“ **Huh**?!” Mondo yelped out, recoiling in shock. The rest of them looked pretty surprised as well.

Makoto’s brow furrowed before his eyes lit up in understanding.

“You mean what you were asking Monokuma about after the trial…!” He exclaimed.

“What was up with that?!” Junko asked, tilting her head questioningly. “You never did explain that, or, well… **anything**!”

This seemed to spark suspicion from Mondo and Sayaka, and concern from Sakura and Chihiro. Kirigiri sighed, running a hand through her hair and looking off to the side.

“I don’t blame you for being mad… But trust me, I’m sure everything will be explained in time. I have a theory about those pictures, but without proof, no one’s going to believe it. There’s no point in riling you all up now when it might be nothing.”

Sayaka narrowed her eyes at the lilac-haired girl.

“I’ll buy that about the pictures, since we probably haven’t seen the last of them… But what about during the investigation? You still haven’t told us what you were doing!”

Makoto placed a hand on her shoulder and looked around at the others.

“G-Guys…! I know she hasn’t said anything yet, but please! She really did find something, and it’s best not to talk about it like this. She told me, and I promise, we’ll tell you all really soon! Just… trust us!”

Tensions seemed to cool as Makoto brought up the fact Kirigiri had spoken with him. They might be annoyed at the lack of answers for now, but if Makoto said it was something best kept secret, then he was likely right. Besides, he said they’d find out eventually, and that was better than the lack of any other real clues on the fourth floor. They could wait.

Makoto rubbed the back of his neck anxiously.

“And… besides that… Togami… took a bath, recently.” He looked to Fujisaki in particular, nodding his head slightly. “I think we should, too.”

Junko grinned mischievously.

“Wellllll~! If Naegi-kun is offering a mixed bath, **I’m** all for it!”

Mondo and Chihiro blushed a beet red, though Sakura and Kyoko kept neutral faces. Sayaka narrowed her eyes at the fashionista as she giggled so carefree.

… Enoshima would **definitely** have to be watched. Naegi-kun’s innocence was at stake…

~*~

“Hey, guys! You came!” Alter Ego beamed as they all gathered around the laptop, Fujisaki sitting it on his lap. “I told Togami earlier… I finally finished decrypting the academy’s files left on the computer! Sorry for making you wait!”

Mondo growled under his breath.

“Bastard… just doing whatever the hell he wants…!”

“Whatever… at least we have this info now!” Junko piped up.

“The time has finally come…” Sakura agreed.

Hands moving across the keyboard, Fujisaki asked Alter Ego what he found out.

“Okay. I’ll summarize the info as best as I can… From what I can tell, the academy was in the process of carrying out **a project**. The project’s objective was… ‘to isolate the students and have them live together inside Hope’s Peak Academy.’ And they weren’t just planning to have the students live together for a short time… Depending on the circumstances, they could be made to spend their whole lives here…” The program revealed.

“Th-That…!” Makoto trailed off in shock.

“… The very same situation… we find ourselves in…” Sakura finished for Makoto.

“It’s unbelievable, huh?” Alter Ego remarked. “What’s more… apparently, the project was formed by **the Hope’s Peak Academy’s administrative office**.”

Sayaka’s brow furrowed at the revelation.

“S-So wait… We weren’t trapped in here by some criminal organization or psychopath… but by Hope’s Peak Academy itself?!” The idol exclaimed in shock.

“The hell they’d do that for?!” Mondo raged.

“Alter Ego never said he was finished.” Kirigiri advised them all. “Let’s listen to the rest…”

“ **An incident** that occurred one year ago seems to be the reason the project was formed.” Alter Ego further elaborated. “The documents I found refer to the incident as… **‘The Biggest, Most Tragic, Most Despair-Inducing Incident in Human History’**...”

“Biggest…?” Makoto echoed.

“Tragic…?” Sayaka also found herself at a loss. They all did.

“Despair-Inducing…?” Fujisaki nervously mumbled. For him at least, that part stuck out because Monokuma had been making a big deal out of hope and despair… He definitely had to be behind this, somehow.

“That’s one overblown name, that’s for sure.” Mondo whistled in respect.

“From what I’ve gathered, the incident was pretty horrific and tragic…” Alter Ego continued. “As a result, Hope’s Peak Academy, as an educational institution, was forced to shut down.”

Kirigiri cupped her chin, narrowing her eyes.

“I see, so there’s the link… One year ago, the so-called **Biggest, Most Tragic, Most Despair-Inducing Incident in Human History** occurred, forcing the academy to shut its doors… And then the aforementioned project came into being, taking the school as its backdrop… and using it to isolate high school students from the world and force them to live their lives together.”

Junko crossed her arms, quirking an eyebrow suspiciously.

“But, like… Why did the academy’s administrative office want to trap us in here?”

Sakura frowned deeply, clenching her fists.

“Furthermore, what exactly is this **Biggest, Most Tragic, Most Despair-Inducing Incident in Human History**?”

Fujisaki wasted no time in typing out their questions. However…

“I’m sorry… that’s all I know… There isn’t anything else here… not anymore…” Alter Ego bowed his head and started tearing up, much like Fujisaki would. “Sorry… I’m so useless…”

Mondo’s hand twitched in frustration.

“You’ve got nothin’ to apologize for! If this is what you found, then… at least it’s a start!” He placed a hand on Fujisaki’s shoulder. “Don’t **you** start calling yourself useless either, understand? We’d be up shit creek without you!”

Fujisaki smiled thinly, but nodded his head slowly. He’d try to not be too self-deprecating about this.

Junko scowled.

“Still… that’s it? It just ends like that, right in the middle?”

Kirigiri nodded slowly.

“So it seems… unfortunately.”

“W-Wait!” Alter Ego cried out suddenly. “There is one more thing… Something very, very important… Possibly… regarding the **Mastermind** …”

“The Mastermind?!” Makoto exclaimed in shock.

Fujisaki’s hands blazed across the keyboard, asking if Alter Ego had determined the Mastermind’s identity.

“Nope. I didn’t figure out his identity, but I did find a lead.” Alter Ego reported. “The Hope’s Peak Academy administrative office formed the project to isolate us in here… And the head of that organization… is the **Headmaster**. In short, there’s a possibility the Headmaster is the Mastermind. Additionally, the Headmaster is **a man in his late thirties** … and it’s likely he’s inside the academy…”

Kirigiri covered her mouth in shock, for once being caught off-guard herself.

“The Headmaster… is inside the academy?!”

“There’s no doubt! The Headmaster’s gotta be the Mastermind!” Mondo punched his palm. “Doesn’t that bear call himself the Headmaster, too?!”

Sakura crossed her arms thoughtfully.

“Which draws even more suspicion… on the contents of the Headmaster’s office…”

Sayaka tucked a lock of hair behind her ear nervously.

“But still… We can’t break that door down, or Monokuma will punish us…”

“I will... find him…” Kirigiri gnashed her teeth in frustration. Junko tilted her head curiously.

“Huh?”

“I will find the Headmaster… no matter what…” Kirigiri growled uncharacteristically. “ **No matter what** …”

“What’s wrong, Kirigiri?” Makoto asked in concern. Kirigiri calmed herself down slightly.

“I… I get the feeling… that I **need** to find him…” She shook her head slowly. “Let’s see if Alter Ego has any more information for us…”

Fujisaki typed out the question of if there was any other information Alter Ego had for them.

“Sorry… that’s all I know…” Alter Ego apologized again. “The data on this laptop is pretty old, but I’ve gotten everything I can from it… I’m really, really sorry…”

“Well, that’s the end, then…” Junko sighed dejectedly.

“Hold on, he’s trying to say something else.” Kirigiri pointed out.

“Uhh... Sorry, I know it’s a little off-topic… But I’ve got something I’d like to ask, too… I haven’t seen Kuwata, Yamada, and Celes for a while… Are they doing okay?”

The room froze as the program brought those people up. Silence filled the room, practically suffocating them. The only sound came from Fujisaki typing out a response, letting Alter Ego know that Celes attempted to kill Yamada, only for Kuwata to kill him instead.

“Huh?! Kuwata and Yamada are dead?!” Alter Ego cried out sorrowfully. “Well… I considered the possibility… but it looks like… it wasn’t just a possibility… At least Celes is still alive, though I guess it must be hard for you guys right now after what she tried to do… Oh, I’m sorry… There’s no point in something like me getting depressed about things I shouldn’t…”

Kirigiri crossed her arms and looked off to the side neutrally.

“Anyway. **Now** we’re done. Alter Ego’s job is done… Good work.” The mysterious girl nodded to Fujisaki, who more or less conveyed the message, just more nicely.

“My job is done… Yeah… I guess it is…” Alter Ego muttered, bowing his head. “Maybe I’ll get a little rest… I am… kinda tired… Bye, guys… See you later…”

Shortly after saying goodbye, the computer put itself into sleep mode. Sakura hummed thoughtfully.

“So Alter Ego has served his purpose…”

“We shouldn’t need to come in here and do this very often from now on.” Kirigiri remarked.

“I do feel bad for him, though…” Sayaka murmured, eyes darting to the side a little shamefully.

“It **is** just a computer program…” Junko commented, but then shrugged. “But I gotta admit, it worked hard, so it might as well be one of us…”

“Hell yeah it did…” Mondo agreed wholeheartedly. “You really outdid yourself, kid! Dunno where we’d be without you.”

Chihiro blushed slightly at the praise. He was glad everyone appreciated Alter Ego… Even if it was just a few leads, he was still able to contribute something.

“Well, should we continue our discussion about the information Alter Ego provided us?” Kirigiri asked. Junko nodded eagerly.

“Yeah! How come the administrative office locked us in here to kill each other?!”

“If the files are to be believed, it has to do with the incident that occurred one year ago…” Sakura rumbled thoughtfully.

“You mean **The Biggest, Most Tragic, Most Despair-Inducing Incident in Human History**?” Sayaka murmured, appearing troubled.

“But what **was** that incident?” Makoto wondered. “It sure doesn’t bring anything to mind, and I’d know if something of that scale happened… I mean, I don’t watch the news all that much, but this sounds big. Too big for just Tokyo or even Japan to be the only ones affected…”

Fujisaki nodded, completely agreeing with that.

“I sure never heard anything, either… If it’s related to cybercrimes in any way, I don’t know how they’d keep something that big a secret.”

“I got nothin’, either…” Mondo muttered, rubbing the back of his head. “Got the biggest biker gang in all Japan, but it’s not like we’re the criminal underworld. Still, if shit that big went down, I think I’d at least have heard a peep about it… The Kuzuryu Clan would have been causing a ruckus, too, one way or another – and you **don’t** mess with the Kuzuryu’s. Trust me on that.”

“Don’t look at me…” Junko sighed airily, arms crossed and looking off to the side in frustration.

“My apologies, but I can think of nothing.” Sakura closed her eyes and tried to think it over some more.

“I know I haven’t heard of anything that catastrophic…” Sayaka’s brow furrowed. “Idols might not be the most knowledgeable people, but we do keep our eyes and ears open for world-changing people and events… Mostly when it comes to our own industry, but still. Like Naegi-kun said, this sounds too big to be something you don’t hear about…”

“At the very least, given how Hope’s Peak Academy had to shut its doors as a result of the incident… we can assume it involved the school in some way…” Kirigiri mused.

“Maybe it was, like, a mass murder of all the students or something?” Mondo tossed out there.

“A tragedy of that scale would be all over the news. I cannot imagine us being in the dark as we are, if this were the case.” Sakura counter-argued.

“Maybe… there was a cover-up?” Junko tilted her head again. “Might explain how we didn’t know the school was shut down!”

“Covering up the entire incident… is not outside the realm of possibility...” Sakura conceded.

Fujisaki’s brow furrowed as he pushed a finger into his cheek, deep in thought.

“I think if there was a mass murder here, where the very best students come, it would be super hard to make a cover-up that huge… So many influential people would be in an uproar! But… I suppose with Hope’s Peak’s ties to the government, maybe…” The programmer trailed off uncertainly.

“Regardless… At this point in time, there’s only one thing we can do: Find the Headmaster.” Kirigiri spoke up with determination. “All we need to do… is find the Headmaster, and have him tell us everything… I’m sure… if we can just find the Headmaster… **I’m sure**.”

Makoto frowned as everyone grew troubled over Kirigiri’s quickly growing obsession with finding the Headmaster. She really did have a strong reaction to this new lead. They all didn’t know how to respond to this fanatic desire, however.

All of them… except for Sakura, who seemed to reach a decision.

“While I will agree that is a vital mission you should pursue… I… must ask you all to lend me an ear for a moment. There is something you must know.”

Makoto blinked as all eyes were on the Ultimate Fighter. She had gone rigid, indicating that whatever she had to say, it troubled her greatly.

“Oogami…?” The luckster asked in concern. The fighter simply grew pale and looked down, clenching her fists.

“I will not ask you to trust me after this… But please, at least listen until I am finished. In the wake of the latest incident, I feel that transparency is all the more crucial for our unity to survive, and this is precisely what I am doing now. This is for your sake, not mine. If Monokuma is going to use this against me, as he has given this information to Togami to use as he sees fit, then I will confront this on my own terms.”

Kirigiri narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

“What exactly are you saying?”

Sakura took a deep breath before taking the plunge.

“The first night that we were trapped here… Monokuma approached me in secret. His demands were simple – I was to be the one to fire the first shot in this Killing Game, it didn’t matter who I killed so long as I held up my end of the bargain. Apparently, he did not have faith in his own incentive that he would use in the coming days… He believed that, while you would all be unsettled, it would take one more fatal push to set off a chain reaction of killings. I… was to be that fatal push.”

Several of them recoiled as Sakura revealed this. None of them expected Sakura – one of their few stable pillars – to be a mole for the Mastermind. And as Makoto looked around, he could see a few of them being upset about this betrayal; Kirigiri, Enoshima, and Oowada looked the most livid. Fujisaki and Maizono looked distraught, much like he was.

“The hell?!” Mondo raged, raising a fist furiously. “All this time, **you’ve** been working for that bastard?!”

“Wh-Why?!” Fujisaki wailed, looking at Oogami with pleading eyes. Junko echoed that question.

“Yeah, why?! You just **gave in**?! Did you wanna kill that much?”

Sakura closed her eyes and sighed patiently.

“No, of course not. My refusal was almost automatic… However… Monokuma declared that if I did not comply, he would execute everyone in my family’s dojo. To have my family’s legacy on my shoulders… it made for a powerful threat. If I disobeyed, my family’s dojo would die in my generation, thus placing a huge dishonor on me… Though you may not understand it yourselves, this was not something I could just brush aside.”

Sayaka clenched her chest as she felt herself resonate with Sakura’s tone and words.

“No…! I… I understand completely, Oogami!” The idol reassured the fighter. “You… You had people held hostage against you. Loved ones! And… not to mention your family’s legacy…!”

Sayaka found it all too easy to relate. Her own motive video had been about her idol group, and that had nearly driven her to commit murder, herself. That overwhelming sense of responsibility… Sayaka sympathized with her so much. And the fact Sakura hadn’t succumbed to murder, either… Sakura was so strong. Stronger than she could ever hope to be…

“You know we can’t trust you with anything now.” Kirigiri waspishly snapped. “Not with keeping an eye on Celes… on Togami… We can’t even entrust you with secrets like Alter Ego. There’s too much risk of it getting back to the Mastermind.”

“It even puts you on the same footing as them!” Junko snarled. “You haven’t killed yet, but Monokuma can make you!”

Sakura shook her head firmly.

“… No. I have made my choice. I will **not** kill. I will fight the Mastermind, even if I must do so alone…” She looked to each of them in turn. “The more time I spent with you… the more I realized I cannot put the life of my dojo ahead of yours. I will not stoop to killing. I will protect all of you. And to my last breath, I will fight the Mastermind and save both you and my family’s dojo. This has become my resolve.”

The room grew quiet as Sakura declared this with such passion and purpose. Fujisaki and Maizono were brought to tears with it, and even Oowada had bowed his head, hands on his hips in a contemplative silence. Makoto smiled at Sakura for having such heartfelt determination. It took amazing courage and strength to approach them all about this; if he’d been in her shoes, he probably would have hidden in shame. Not Sakura, though. There was no way he could doubt her after everything they’d been through and after such an earnest confession.

… Sadly, it didn’t appear this sentiment was shared by all…

“F… Fat load of good **that’s** gonna do!” Junko spat out, turning on her heel and bolting away from the changing room, tears pricking at her eyes. Fujisaki cried out after her.

“Enoshima…!”

Sakura shook her head at the programmer, closing her eyes patiently.

“No, Fujisaki… It’s as it should be. Despising and distrusting a traitor is natural, Enoshima has a right to be upset with me.” The fighter turned to the remaining glaring person in the room. “… As do you, Kirigiri.”

“As long as we’re in agreement on that…” Kirigiri coldly replied. “Is this the secret that Togami was given, back in the second motive?”

Sakura nodded reluctantly.

“Indeed… He clearly has purposes of using that secret against us at some point, but now that secret holds no power with my confession. Both he and Monokuma will be back at square one in terms of planning ways to make us kill each other…”

“That remains to be seen.” Kirigiri coldly snapped.

“Kirigiri…” Makoto mumbled dejectedly.

Fujisaki turned to the biker, who’d been quiet for a while now.

“O-Oowada…? What about you?”

Mondo didn’t reply immediately, but when he did, he kept his head bowed, leaving them to guess what was going through his mind at that time.

“Sorry, kid… I… need a little bit of time… Sorry, Oogami.”

Sakura gave a small, bitter smile.

“That is fine, Oowada. Take all the time you need.” Taking a deep breath, Sakura excused herself to allow the others space to mull over their feelings about her betrayal. Makoto watched her go despondently.

Not long after Sakura had departed, the rest of them decided to leave the dressing room. But when they did…

“My chest… pounding… pounding…” Monokuma appeared, growling lowly. He raised his paws and snarled furiously. “I’m so pissed right now, I’m pounding my chest!”

Makoto took a step back, warily.

“I-Is… Is this about the Headmaster’s office again…?” He asked carefully.

Monokuma shook in outrage.

“That’s got nothin’ to do with this!” The bear snapped, holding up a claw threateningly. “And while I **am** jealous of you guys’ steamy bathtime adventures, that’s not what I’m mad about. Steamy… Steamy… I’m so pissed right now, I’ve got steam coming out of my ears!!!”

Mondo’s hand twitched in frustration.

“Would you just spit it out already?!”

Monokuma huffed impatiently.

“Take a mental note, kids. I’m the kinda bear who **gives** **his just desserts**. Anaifer-anai… atouthfer-atouth…” Monokuma cackled and abruptly departed.

“U-Um… what was that…?” Sayaka asked nervously, wondering about the last part especially.

“I believe he said ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’…” Kirigiri said, cupping her chin and narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

Makoto’s brow furrowed.

“Whatever his grudge is, it couldn’t be about us… I mean, he didn’t… eavesdrop on us in there, r-right?”

An uncomfortable silence was his answer. They had no way to know for sure. Togami apparently eavesdropped on them, so there was nothing that said Monokuma couldn’t do the same. And that didn’t instill confidence…

Shortly after Monokuma’s departure, the nighttime announcement rang out. Kirigiri looked around at everybody.

“What are you all going to do? Celes proposed the curfew, but we don’t have to pay heed to her suggestions now…”

Fujisaki pressed his index fingers together.

“I-I think we should keep it going… It may be a lot safer without people running around at night…”

“Good point…” Mondo muttered. Kirigiri nodded indulgently.

“Then that’s what we’ll do. We’re all done for the night…”

~*~

Makoto chewed his lower lip as he entered the restroom. He felt awful about lying to Maizono like that, but now more than ever, he needed to help investigate what he could. He promised Kirigiri he would look at the secret room tonight, and that’s what he was going to do. Even if she was likely still cross at Oogami, and forgot about their plans… A promise was a promise.

His brow furrowed as he opened the supply closet at the end of the line of stalls. It looked like your everyday, run-of-the-mill supply closet. Was Kirigiri telling the truth about what she found…? She said the entrance was along the back wall of the supply closet… Makoto warily extended his hand, touching the back wall, and then slowly, steadily pushing it…

“ **Whoa** …!” Makoto yelped. With a resounding crash, he collapsed through the abrupt gap, winding up on the floor. Once he regained his bearings and wobbled to his feet, he looked back at the wall, which was still revolving lightly from the sudden movement. “So, basically… That thing’s like a revolving door… Good to know.”

The luckster dusted his legs and arms off before taking a look around the room. It was like Kirigiri said… it was rather barren, but there was a shelf with files and papers along the back wall, and a desk in front of it. Leaving the desk alone for now, he moved to the main attraction, since there was a lot more on it, and he didn’t have a whole lot of time to be snooping around. Part of his promise was that he wouldn’t tip off Monokuma, so he had a few minutes in here at most.

_‘There’s a huge volume of files in here… Even some old yearbooks, too…’_ The luckster thought to himself. _‘It’s all covered in dust…’_

Among the files, his eyes were drawn to one of the ends where a huge volume caught his attention.

_‘Hope’s Peak Academy Student Register? This is the only thing that **isn’t** coated in dust.’ _The luckster noted. _‘Has someone handled it recently?’_

As Makoto wondered that, he picked up the file and was about to look inside. However, his attention was drawn to a single slip of paper that fell out of the file. He picked it up and read it curiously.

“Huh…? ‘You must not leave this place’?” Makoto muttered to himself. That was… unusual. He could understand if it said, ‘You cannot leave this place.’ However, it clearly said, ‘must not.’ He didn’t understand that part at all.

Suddenly, the brunet clutched his head as he felt lightheaded.

_‘I have… this weird feeling… Like déjà vu… I’ve heard those words before…’_ Makoto groaned as he thought to himself, trying desperately to remember where he heard them. _‘What do I know? What don’t I know? I… I…’_

As Makoto stood there, totally absorbed and lost in his thoughts, he was left completely vulnerable and unaware of the stranger sneaking up behind him. They were wearing a white suit and wearing a mask that had a Cheshire grin on it. In one swift moment… the stranger raised a blunt object high in the air… and swung down hard on the back of Makoto’s head, knocking him out instantly. The luckster never even knew what hit him.

~*~

It was some time later, Makoto knew that much. But he blearily opened his eyes and found himself on the floor of the secret room… But not only that…

“Makoto...!” The idol exclaimed in relief as he regained consciousness. His head had been shifted into her lap, and she was looking down at his face with obvious concern.

“S-S… Sayaka…” Makoto mumbled softly before snapping into a more alert state. It didn’t even register they’d been using their given names; he was too distressed about her being there. “M-Maizono! Wh-What are you doing here?!”

Sayaka chewed her lower lip in concern, brushing some hair out of his face. The luckster tried to sit up, but she held him down to let him regain his bearings some more.

“I waited in your room a while, but you never showed up… I-I did give you some time!” The idol hastily promised him. “B-But you were gone for more than fifteen minutes, so… I went to ask Kirigiri, since I figured it was about that thing she found during the investigation…”

Makoto wilted as that name came up. Of course Sayaka would see through him… she always did. Kirigiri was probably upset at him now for bringing another into the loop about this secret room… And that didn’t even get into what might have happened to…

Makoto froze as that thought just struck him.

“The files…!” Makoto sat up for real this time, even as Sayaka protested and fussed over him. That was when he saw Kirigiri was in the room with them as well, over by the now barren shelves.

“It’s too late, Naegi…” Kirigiri patiently remarked, placing a hand down on the desk and wiping at a pile of dust. “Don’t worry. I’m not mad.”

Even as Kirigiri said that, Makoto deflated in disappointment and shame.

“Crap… I’m sorry, Kirigiri. I know how important this room was to our investigation. I don’t know how I tipped off Monokuma, but I must have done something wrong!” The luckster squeezed his eyes shut as he bowed his head in shame. Sayaka rubbed his back soothingly, and he leaned against her instinctively.

“I’m fairly certain it wasn’t you, Naegi…” Kirigiri mused as she cupped her chin in thought. “The Mastermind must have been paying more attention to me than I thought. But that also means… they must have known about this room, then. And if that’s true, those files did contain some sensitive information… We were on the right track, but it isn’t a complete loss.”

“Not a complete loss…?” Makoto echoed in confusion. Kirigiri nodded.

“We did lose those files… But we learned a little of what the Mastermind knew **because** we tried this little experiment. And it’s not as if this room is completely useless to us now… The fact there is no camera in here alone…” She trailed off as her two companions went eerily silent behind her. She turned around, and wasn’t too surprised to find Maizono glaring at her. Naegi sat there looking lost and hurt.

“You… **knew** Makoto would get hurt, if he checked this place out…?” Sayaka hissed lowly.

Kirigiri closed her eyes calmly.

“No, I didn’t know for certain… I’m not clairvoyant.” The mysterious girl ran a hand through her hair neutrally. “But I did at least suspect the possibility.”

Sayaka exploded furiously.

“You risked his life **despite that**?!” She roared.

Kirigiri sighed airily.

“If the Mastermind knew about this place, I wanted to know what they would do… I **had** been willing to test the hypothesis myself, but Naegi insisted on helping me. There’s nothing gained without some risk.”

“Makoto was **attacked**!” Sayaka raged furiously. “He could have been **killed**!”

“And yet he wasn’t…” Kirigiri pointed out. “Besides, he’s a guy. Naegi can walk it off.”

Makoto sweatdropped at that logic.

_‘What does she think guys are made of, exactly?’_ Makoto sighed glumly. “… Okay, Kirigiri. Fine.”

Sayaka looked at the brunet in stunned disbelief.

“Makoto?! You’re just going to let this **go**?!”

Makoto scratched his cheek sheepishly.

“Well, it happened whether I get mad about it or not. I’m alive, and like Kirigiri said, we can still find a use for this room, I guess. I just don’t see the point of holding a grudge…”

Sayaka trembled in barely contained anger as she cupped one side of his face tenderly.

“Makoto, I swear you are the kindest, sweetest guy I’ve met… But I can’t just let this slide. Kirigiri toyed with your **life** … That’s not something I can just brush off. Kirigiri gets pissed at Oogami for being the Mastermind’s mole, even though she’s **trying** to make amends by telling us now… and then Kirigiri turns around and uses you just because she’s **curious**?!” Sayaka shook her head stubbornly, shooting the lilac-haired girl another glare. “And don’t give me any bullshit about being naïve or being too trusting! Besides her confession to being the mole, has Oogami done **anything** to make us doubt her? Oogami’s guarded all the crime scenes up until now, and she’s helped us out in every trial! She could have killed any one of us for losing her friend Asahina, but she hasn’t! She didn’t even get mad at you for resenting her! Where’s your priorities, Kirigiri?!”

“Maizono…” Makoto murmured quietly, feeling conflicted about it all.

A silence fell after Sayaka’s furious rant. They stayed there uncomfortably, at least for Makoto, for the longest time. Eventually Kirigiri mustered some words.

“Let’s… return to our rooms. Tempers can cool overnight, and…” The mysterious girl trailed off as the idol cut her off with a frustrated growl.

“We can get back just **fine**!” Sayaka snapped, helping Makoto up and guiding him out of the secret room. She shot the lilac-haired girl one last disapproving glare over her shoulder before leaving with the luckster.

Left alone in the secret room, Kirigiri was only accompanied by her thoughts and the bitter fruits of her efforts. Her glove made a noise as the hand curled into a fist in frustration. That… really had not gone well.

The mysterious girl looked around the largely barren room with appraising eyes.

Not well at all.

~*~

The fashionista curled up on her bed and squeezed her eyes shut tight. The events in the dressing room still fresh in her mind. She tried not thinking about them. She tried shoving down the bile that was rising in her throat…

Junko opened her eyes and stared morosely into empty space.

Another mole. Monokuma enlisted another mole. And not just any mole… the Ultimate Fighter. Probably the one student who could give her the most trouble when it came to a straight-up fight.

And Junko had been none the wiser.

Fresh tears pricked at her eyes. She was glad that she was alone in the safe confines of her soundproof room, because she was likely going to be a sobbing, inconsolable wreck again very soon. Sakura’s confession would just not leave her head, the words ringing in her ears…

“Just what am I to you…?” The girl begged, pleaded for an answer she was never going to get. She’d already been calling for Monokuma for hours now, but there hadn’t been a peep. Not even a sadistic giggle from the monitor in her room.

The girl tossed and turned to the other side, again trying to reel in her thoughts. And once again failing miserably at it.

She **had** to get an answer for this… She needed to understand. Her… It was her **job** to do the heavylifting here. Monokuma needed someone to die to set off the chain reaction of murders? She was the go-to, one-army woman. She would have gladly carried out any of Monokuma’s sick desires and arranged the crime scene as she was ordered to. Framing anyone that Monokuma found inconvenient. If she ended up getting found guilty in the trial, she was to be dropped down into a dungeon that she could escape from, and then later help from behind the scenes under the pretense of her death.

That was the **plan**. And yet… And yet…

_“I was to fire the first shot…”_

The girl squeezed her eyes shut tight again and shook her head in denial. No matter how much she thought about it, this wasn’t some random whim. Monokuma knew exactly what he was doing, enlisting Oogami in secret. Without telling her.

**Without telling her** …

“Just…”

What else wasn’t Monokuma telling her? Was she ever part of the plan? Had she screwed up somehow and pissed Monokuma off? Was that it? Was this her fault?

“Just what am I...”

But no… In truth, what bothered her the most. Was that Oogami so **easily** did the very thing she had wanted to do for some time now. At least… with Naegi.

She so desperately wanted to just shed the disguise and bask in his warmth and acceptance as **herself** … She wanted the same endearing loyalty and affection that he gave Junko Enoshima. The same acceptance he gave everybody, even to pricks like Togami, witches like Celes, and traitors like Oogami… If he was willing to try and befriend people like them, then surely Naegi-kun would also…

“Just what am I to you… Junko…?” The girl sobbed pitifully.

… Surely Naegi-kun could fill the void in the heart of Mukuro Ikusaba.

The Ultimate Soldier thought she had found her life’s passion and purpose by helping her twin sister with anything she ever wanted, even if that meant ending the world… But now… She didn’t know anything anymore.

But the worst part… The **worst** part… was that even if she had these doubts. These unnecessary thoughts. Even if she acted on these desires… Was there even a point?

Could Naegi-kun even accept a heartless monster that put him in this game and made his friends kill each other? She wouldn’t be able to take it if he rejected her. Hell… she didn’t even know if Junko had rejected her, and she was like this. If Naegi-kun rejected her…

Mukuro screamed in anguish as the tears continued to cascade down her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, no backlog of chapters yet. But I have a whole weekend, and I am getting ideas on how to proceed... I'm even reconsidering the number of survivors I want by the end~
> 
> ... Which is not good news, I assure you. XD I mean, I'm bouncing between two numbers, but you know by now that any further losses are going to hurt. 
> 
> ... Gotta feel the burn, or this wouldn't be Danganronpa! XD
> 
> Last note - if you feel Kyoko came off too strongly with Sakura's confession, don't be too concerned. There will be no character bashing. I've refreshed myself on Chapter 4 of THH, so I have a grasp of Kyoko's character. I don't intend to butcher her character; upcoming chapters will redeem her in the others' eyes, I promise. Friction is gonna be high for a while...


	17. Chapter 4, Part 3: All All Apologies

_Mukuro tilted her head as they arrived on the second floor. Just moments ago, they’d bid adieu to their Headmaster by sending him up in a rocket… And now they were here?_

_It need not be said that Headmaster Kirigiri didn’t survive his brief space journey. Kazuichi Souda was a real piece of work, designing that deathtrap._

_“Get your head in the **game** , Muku!” Junko crowed, waving a baseball bat ecstatically. “We just bumped our classmates’ IQs down a couple notches~… Back to freshman year level, in fact! Toges is gonna **love** that when he finds out the truth! We gotta celebrate this momentous occasion! I’ll call it… Anti-Graduation! Hehe!”_

_Mukuro blinked owlishly._

_“… How do you know Togami’s going to live that long?” As far as the soldier knew, everyone had an equal chance of making it to the end… Well, the end that Junko wanted them to reach, anyway._

_Junko groaned loudly, swinging the bat at Mukuro with murderous intent. Mukuro casually dodged the rapid strikes, seeing them more as “love taps”._

_… Their family life was unique, okay?_

_“Muku, Muku, Muku, Muku, **Muku** …” Junko sighed airily, leaning on the bat and giving the soldier a dull stare. “What have I always told you?”_

_Mukuro tapped her chin as she held a gift-wrapped box under one arm._

_“To shut my fat, stupid, ugly face and just do what I’m told?”_

_“ **And**?” Junko pressed._

_Mukuro hesitated as she tried to think of what else there was._

_“… That you’re amazing?”_

_“That I’m **omnisciently** amazing, thank you very much!” Junko corrected in a huff. “ **I know all** , **I see all**! I am the **god** of this world, Muku! I know **exactly** who the cockroaches in our class are! Toges is an ass, but he’s not an idiot. … Well, okay. He **is** an idiot. But he’s got more brownie points than most of these shmucks – he’s not gonna kill or be killed ‘til we dredge up his family’s annihilation, and I don’t plan on doin’ that for **ages**. Celes is gonna be roadkill long before then.”_

_“O-Oh… I see…” Mukuro clearly didn’t see. “That makes sense.”_

_The soldier shrugged. Even if she didn’t understand, Junko always had a plan. That was why she was the Mastermind._

_Junko stared deadpan at Mukuro._

_“Suuure you do…” Junko stood back to her full height, pointing the bat point-blank at Mukuro’s face, and then turned around and started strutting down the hall. “You see it like a bullet to the face…”_

_Junko whipped around suddenly, drawing a revolver and shooting it at Mukuro’s face. Being the trained soldier she was, Mukuro deflected the bullet with her combat knife. And the second… third… fourth… fifth bullets after that. She didn’t even break a sweat._

_The gun clicked in Junko’s hands, indicating it was out of ammo. The fashionista tossed it aside out of boredom._

_“Jeez, you’re boring… Why can’t you just roll over and die like a good little bitch? Lemme taste the Nirvana of all Despairs?!”_

_Mukuro smiled even as Junko whined._

_“That’s Despair in itself, isn’t it?”_

_“Sure, like a couch potato doing one push-up and calling it exercise!” Junko scoffed, whipping around again, continuing her saunter. “Just take that useless Headmaster to his resting place and plant the detonation charges! I wanna celebrate New Year’s with a bang!”_

_Mukuro tilted her head in confusion._

_“But it’s not even close to New Year’s…?”_

_“It is in **my** dystopian world of Despair! Don’t you sass me, or I’ll shank you in your sleep!”_

_Mukuro sighed fondly, taking the branch hallway. Junko was such an artist, thinking up new ways to kill her every single day… Well, the “shank you in your sleep” attempt had already been done to death, along with a cacophony of other sleep and/or wakeup call related attempts. Asphyxiation, electrocution, drowning, waking up doused in kerosene… Junko tried a lot of different stuff. Mukuro never took it personally, ‘cause Junko was just trying to make her Despair, too._

_The soldier smiled again as she heard Junko going to town on their old lockers. Smashing up all that stuff, knowing there’d be no way to get those precious memories and mementos back… Junko really did love her art…_

_“A pinup poster of **moi**?! **Die** , **Kuwata**!” Cue even more animated destruction sounds as Junko presumably annihilated Kuwata’s locker…_

_Such an artist…_

~*~

Raggedly, Celes returned from her bathroom after a pointless trip. Of course the water would be off when she needed it most. Though she normally despised getting her face wet, there was honestly no point in holding up her charade when the only time she’d bothered to leave her room was in the later part of the morning to snag her food while the others were busy exploring the new floor.

A floor she hadn’t bothered to check out herself… because what was the point? Another pointless floor with frivolous new rooms and accommodations, and not one escape route. It was the same every damn time.

Besides. Showing her face was only going to set people off. Although, she had held out a small sliver of hope that Naegi would at least check in on her even once… Not that she was surprised with no visitors. Even Naegi, who had the patience and understanding of a saint, had to have his limits.

Exhaustedly, Celes sat down on her bed and looked around her elegant room. It starkly contrasted her current appearance – she’d foregone her regal dress that she always wore, and the hair extensions were off her head for the time being. She opted for simple sleepwear because there was no point dressing up when she didn’t feel like “Celestia Ludenberg” and lacked the strength to muster the persona. Monokuma’s sick joke had seen to it that she would never be able to use that dress again. The burn damage alone rendered it obsolete, and the fact it’d been doused down with filthy hose water… It made Celes sick just thinking about it. Utterly disgusted. She was absolutely outraged at that fucking bear for making a mockery of her…

Not that she could **do** anything about it. All her plans had been burnt down to cinders, and her opportunity to escape had been snatched away. The cherry on top of this utter travesty was that PTSD-inducing “execution” that bastard forced her through… She couldn’t even sleep. Every time she closed her eyes, she could feel the crackles of fire on her skin and hear the blaring siren of that obnoxious firetruck as it came barreling at her, leaving no escape route…

Sometimes, it was even worse than that. Sometimes her mind would reimagine the part where Kuwata swung in to knock her off the pyre… replace him with Naegi, have him be the one to take a firetruck to the face, and thus **really** lose everything in that nightmare. The castle had crumbled in the end, hadn’t it?

Celes heaved a sigh and raked a hand through her short hair. This wasn’t sustainable. Being left alone to her thoughts, her night terrors, she was going to lose her mind. Celes couldn’t care less about the others and what they thought of her… But Naegi, she needed that soothing company of his to drown out the madness.

He was all that she had left in this hellhole, now that the groveling pig was gone… And being the idiot she was, Celes had pushed even him away in her selfish, unrepentant greed. The only way to get him back involved changing that greed-filled heart of hers… and the sad fact was, Celes didn’t know how to **do** that. As far as she could tell, all she still cared about was her dream. All that mattered was her dream. Her priority was achieving her dream.

… So why did part of her miss that annoying suck-up?

~*~

“You have **got** to be shitting me…” Mondo grumbled as they went about their breakfast.

A total of four of them had shown up that morning. Makoto, Sayaka, Mondo, and Chihiro. That was all. No matter how much they waited, Kyoko and Junko never showed; Sakura at least politely turned them down, not wanting to stir up trouble for everyone. The other two didn’t have an excuse, though… Now they were just being petty.

“After everything we learned yesterday, I’m not all that surprised…” Makoto scratched his cheek sheepishly. They had the strongest reactions to Sakura’s confession, after all.

Sayaka rubbed Makoto’s back consolingly and scowled lightly at the thought of one of them in particular.

“If those two want to be childish about this, let them! Oogami is **not** like Togami or Celes! If they can’t see that, we don’t need their negativity here!”

“True enough, I guess…” Mondo rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. Honestly, he wanted to give Sakura a chance, too. It took guts to confess like that, and she’d proven trustworthy all this time. Literally the only thing that made him hesitate, made him cautious… was Fujisaki. Mondo had already screwed up once and almost killed the kid. He really didn’t want to put all his trust in Oogami, only for her to stab them in the back… or in the worst case, wring Fujisaki’s neck because the damn bear ordered her to.

Naegi hadn’t seen his attacker last night, after all.

The biker looked down and sighed in frustration.

“… Why do they gotta be such dumbasses?” He groused. “Togami and that bitch are headaches enough as it is!”

Makoto smiled wryly.

“They’re still our friends! We’ll just have to win them over. If Oogami’s going to work hard to battle the Mastermind, we should do our part, too!”

Sayaka mirrored his wry smile as she reflected on her own opinions on the matter… Makoto was so optimistic about winning the others over; she wished she could share that boundless optimism. It just seemed so daunting… Togami was **enjoying** this game… Celes had betrayed them all, and had made no efforts to make amends or even show regret over her actions. Kirigiri had her head shoved so far up her own ass, using them as guinea pigs for her investigation… The only one she had some hope for, honestly, was Enoshima. It couldn’t hurt trying to win her over. But everyone else…?

Well. She wouldn’t let Makoto approach those guys on his own, anyway. Not only did he deserve the moral support, but she just couldn’t trust those guys – except Enoshima – to not use or hurt him in some way. Last night had been a real eye-opener…

“I want to help, too!” Fujisaki piped up, hands clasped together. “If there’s anything I can do, just let me know! Please!”

Makoto chuckled warmly at the earnest plea. He nodded his head in acceptance.

“I think I have an idea, but we’ll have to talk to Kirigiri about it. There might be one more thing only **you** can do… At least for right now.”

Fujisaki brightened up at the prospect, but Oowada rubbed the back of his head and looked down with narrowed eyes.

“Does it gotta do with that… **thing**? Y’know, what happened last night?” He muttered as quietly as he could to avoid being overheard by… others.

Makoto nodded in acknowledgement. Before going to the cafeteria, he and Sayaka had pulled the biker and programmer into the dressing room and told them about the events of last night. They deserved to know about the secret room. Makoto had every intention of telling Sakura and Junko about it, as well.

“Yeah… It’s gonna be too soon to try anything now, but if we can plan it out, I’m sure that we’ll dig up some new info!” The luckster grinned sheepishly as this did disappoint Fujisaki a little. “In the meantime… Let’s just try talking with everybody! We have to find common ground, or the Killing Game will never end.”

While no one necessarily disagreed with the brunet, there was clearly some hesitation from Sayaka and Mondo. Chihiro volunteered to check on Sakura, and Mondo volunteered to tag along. Sayaka said she would check in on Junko if Makoto wanted to check on Kyoko…

But that wasn’t good enough for the luckster. He knew he’d have to check on Kyoko at some point, but if they were going to form a united front, they needed to approach the one guy who’d been against them for the longest time… Makoto wanted to start big.

… He also wasn’t sure how things would go with Kyoko if he approached her now, since he was still conflicted about last night. He didn’t resent her for it like Sayaka wanted him to, but he wasn’t okay with it, either.

That didn’t even get into his muddled thoughts on Celes…

~*~

“You never learn, do you?” Togami deadpanned as Makoto rubbed the back of his head bashfully.

“S-Sorry…” The luckster stood a few feet away from the heir, unrepentantly invading the sanctum of the library.

The blond ruefully shook his head and clapped the book shut, placing it on the table beside him. He then fixed the luckster with a shrewd glare.

“Well?” The heir archly asked. “Get on with it, Naegi.”

Makoto held up his hands peacefully.

“H-Hey, I just wanted to hang out for a bit! You don’t have to bite my head off!”

Togami scoffed at the very notion.

“’Hang out’? Really? Have you forgotten the thrilling game we’re in?” The blond chuckled darkly. “Although, perhaps your naivety **is** to my benefit… You’ll be dead by the end of this, anyway. If not by my hand, then by the hand of that homicidal maniac passing off as one of your buddies…”

Makoto frowned as the heir dredged **that** up. It’d slipped his mind that Togami had found information on Genocide Jack…

“Hey, Togami…” Makoto started, but the heir cut him off.

“If that murderous fiend is all you want to know about, the files are in there.” Togami jabbed a thumb towards the door to the archives. “Scram.”

The luckster released a sigh and shook his head. He’d just have to check that out later, then…

“Togami, I don’t understand you… I mean, if you just wanted to be left alone, that would be one thing. And I get that you probably have your pride, so coming to us when you perceived Celes targeting you would be the last thing you’d want to do… But faking your death? Doing nothing when Celes and Kuwata attacked Yamada? Why?”

Togami grunted at the persistent questions.

“This again… If you’re going to repeat yourself, at least just loop it on a recorder so I can shut it off…” The heir sighed breezily. “Let me put it into perspective for you. Only a chosen few, perhaps 1% of us, are able to succeed in life. For the other 99%, their dreams never come true. Some never even have a dream in the first place... Spending every waking hour toiling to scrap together a meager living, just barely getting by... There’s something that **I** don’t understand. Tell me, Naegi. Is there any meaning to a life like that?”

Makoto’s brow scrunched together in confusion.

“Why are you asking me…?”

“Because you are part of that 99%, obviously. Why did you even feel the need to ask?” Togami snidely answered.

Makoto dipped his head dejectedly at that.

_‘I knew he was going to insult me somehow…’_

“Up until now, I've never been around anyone like that. So I was interested... So tell me, how does it feel to live a life without hope, without potential or ambition or dreams?” Togami repeated his mean-spirited question.

The luckster looked back up at him with determination.

“C-Come on! I don't have ambition, or dreams? I've never felt that way about myself!  
I mean sure, maybe I'll never be as rich as you or anything, but... do you have to go around saying that to everyone? Can you only be happy by being better than others?” The brunet fired back. Togami scoffed again.

“Your complaints are as old and tired as a third-rate pop song from any generation...  
And yet, those are the words of the 99%. That is how you find comfort in your tiny, cold little world.”

“S-Stop saying stuff like that…!” Makoto demanded.

“Sorry, I can't not speak the truth.” Togami arrogantly rebutted. “No matter how much you push and struggle, people like you will never be in a position to change the world. You could all disappear tomorrow, and nothing would change. Your existence is of no consequence.”

Makoto could feel himself shaking with righteous anger, and he pointed at Togami in frustration.

“Whether that's true or not, it doesn't matter. Even if you live a totally normal, unimportant life, you can still find happiness in that. If I can live a life that I'm satisfied with, that's all that matters. If I spent all my time comparing my life to other people's, I'd never be happy. Sure, maybe you can do that. You were guaranteed success from the day you were born, so…!” The luckster found himself cut off by a snarl from the Togami heir. He took a step back cautiously.

“Hold it! From the day I was born? You have no idea… You don’t have a clue what you’re talking about!” Togami spat angrily, glaring right back at the luckster.

“What…?”

“Those who are ‘chosen’ from birth have no concept of what that truly means. **I have gone to battle and emerged victorious**. **That** is why I am the chosen.” Togami asserted with ferocity.

Makoto’s brow remained furrowed as he puzzled over the heir’s words.

“Wh-What are you talking about…?”

“You're spoiled, all of you. Running away into a world of self-indulgence. Battle, competition, rivalry—you run away from it all. **That** is why the 99% walk the path that they do. Good god, your absolute lack of understanding makes me want to weep.” Togami spat, standing up to his full height and storming out of the library without another word.

The luckster stood rooted in place. A part of him wanted to pursue Togami, but another part knew that it was likely for the best to give the heir some space. He was so confused.

“What got into him…?” Makoto sighed tiredly when he realized no answers were going to come from just standing there. He knew approaching the heir was going to be a longshot, but he still felt the need to try. No one else was going to, at least not without purposely trying to pick a fight… And he personally believed in “taking one for the team” when it came to things he wouldn’t want to pawn off on someone else when it would clearly hurt them. Treat others how you would want to be treated and all that.

… But now what?

~*~

“Enoshima…” Sayaka sighed morosely, having rung the other girl’s doorbell to no avail. The fashionista hadn’t even said a word, no matter how many times she called out. By all rights, she should have just moved on to search other areas… but Sayaka’s intuition was telling her that Junko was here, and she’d promised Makoto that she would check up on their friend.

Just as the idol was prepared to sit right outside the other girl’s room and wait her out, the door opened, and Junko’s pale face poked out. Sayaka’s brow knitted in concern as she got a better look at it – Junko clearly hadn’t slept. The bags under those puffy eyes told it all.

But why had she been crying…?

“Oh… it’s you.” Junko deadpanned before pulling her head back in. “Come back later. I’m not in the mood!”

Junko moved to shut the door, but Sayaka stopped the movement with a determined scowl on her face.

“Would Makoto leave you alone like this?!”

Junko scowled back just as stubbornly.

_‘He should… I deserve it…’_ Out loud, Junko asked blearily, “Why are you here?”

“You weren’t at breakfast!” Sayaka chided, narrowing her eyes. “Of course we were going to check you were okay!”

Junko scoffed.

“Interrogate me, more like… I mean, really? You’re gonna trust that rat when she could just snap you like a twig?” The fashionista shook her head. “I’m not gonna come when you’re dining with a traitor!”

“Oogami’s **not** a traitor…!” Sayaka hissed vehemently. “Why are you so distrusting?! At least Oogami considers **your** feelings! She’s not gonna come to meals when she knows it’ll set you and Kirigiri off! Do you know how much you’re hurting her?!”

“Boo fucking hoo!” Junko waspishly snapped back. “Even if she **is** your friend, what’s going to stop her when Monokuma twists her arm?! **Nothing**! She’s the Ultimate fucking **Fighter**! Even Oowada can get his brains smashed in by that monster! Monokuma chose her because she’s the **strongest**!”

Sayaka faltered as she picked up on the bitterness and misery in Junko’s tone… She couldn’t quite place it, but there was something off about it. Yes, Junko’s fear and paranoia were easy to accept at face value… But Junko almost sounded…

The idol shook her head. Maybe her intuition was onto something, but she wasn’t going to start doubting now. She couldn’t.

“So… what?! You stay locked in your room until the next murder happens? What if Makoto is the next victim?” The idol pressed.

Junko stiffened at that. Sayaka could feel a slight chill run down her spine as some subtle change swept over the fashionista, those puffy eyes glaring back darkly at her.

“What… is that supposed to mean…?” Junko hissed. “Is that bitch targeting…? She wouldn’t. She **can’t**.”

Cautiously, Sayaka pressed on. She knew this was a dangerous line of questioning, considering their mutual interest… Sayaka didn’t even like entertaining the thought of Makoto dying – Kuwata’s attempted escape was still fresh in her mind and made her weak in the knees. But if this was how she could get through to Enoshima…

“You know Makoto is the most trusting out of all of us.” Sayaka pressed. “I’ve shielded him as best as I can, but if Celes has shown us anything, it’s that my efforts alone haven’t been enough! Enoshima, **please**! We both care so much for him!”

It was playing with fire, and Sayaka knew it. She did not want to lose Makoto to Enoshima… But she wasn’t about to let the fashionista have regrets. Shutting everyone out, even Makoto, Sayaka knew that would **destroy** Junko. And even though helping out a rival felt so **wrong** … It felt even worse to just abandon a friend because she had a stupid grudge.

The idol wilted as another subtle change swept over Junko… Somehow, she could just tell that she had taken the wrong approach to this.

“That’s right… he does have you…” Junko murmured hollowly. Robotically, the fashionista took advantage of the lull in their struggle over the door, and slammed it shut in Sayaka’s face.

Sayaka pounded a fist against the door in frustration. Of course Junko didn’t open back up. She had locked the door pretty quickly… Sayaka kicked the door for good measure, glowering at it. Why? How had anything she said been **bad**? It was infuriating…

“Trouble in paradise? Why am I not surprised…” A weary sigh came from nearby… No, from right next to her.

Sayaka stiffened at the voice. Her eyes hardened as she turned to the right. Celes had stepped out of her room, and the sight of the gambler without those obnoxious extensions or gaudy clothes did nothing to stymy the idol’s wrath.

“ **You** …” The bluenette hissed caustically. “You’re going to show your face **now**?”

Celes stared dryly at the idol.

“It had to happen at some point. But of course my luck continues to go awry… I’m going to take a wild guess that some bad news came up.” The gambler merely assumed it was related to Alter Ego… She never did have high hopes for that computer program.

“Why do you even care?!” Sayaka spat, crossly. “You never gave a shit about us from the beginning!”

Celes rolled her eyes.

“Do you think **Naegi-kun** would want us to fight?” The gambler fired back, patronizingly.

“Do you think he even cares about you now that he’s seen the real you?!” Sayaka raged. “You say that you and Togami are different, but you seemed pretty damn glad for the chance to kill and escape!”

Celes had no rebuttal for that. A cold silence settled between them. The gambler looked off to the side stiffly.

“If Naegi-kun hates me now, it is only natural…” Celes snapped, bitterly. “I won’t beg for his forgiveness. But you and I both know… if Naegi-kun forces himself to try and get along with Togami of all people, he will undoubtedly try to reform me, as well. He is too soft…”

Sayaka exploded furiously.

“And you **wonder** why I’m pissed?! Why we’re **all** pissed at you?! You just… **use** people, toy with them when they’re **interesting** , and then just throw them away! Yamada knows it! Makoto knows it! I’d say the only one who doesn’t know it is you, but that’s not the case! You just don’t **care**!” Sayaka shook her head fiercely. “You think I’m just going to let you use and throw away Makoto?!”

Celes gnashed her teeth and clenched her fists at her sides.

“Naegi-kun is… **different** …!” Celes vehemently insisted. “I said I was going to take him with me, did I not?!”

“That’s supposed to be **better**?!” Sayaka screamed in frustration. “Open your eyes, Ludenberg! He **absolutely** would have never forgiven you if you **had** gotten away with it! You say Makoto’s different, but you don’t even care how he feels! His friends dying does not make him **happy**!”

Celes bowed her head in aggravation. Her whole body trembled in rage and frustration.

“I know that… I know that… **I know that**!” Celes snarled, lifting up her head again to face the bluenette in outrage. “You think I have resigned myself to these state of affairs?! Monokuma, Togami, hell, even Kuwata made a mockery of me! My image is grinded to dust! My dream couldn’t be any farther away! The rest of you wish that truck had hit its mark, and **Naegi-kun** …

Celes shook violently, raising a twitching hand.

“ **I don’t want this at all**! Sure, I wish I succeeded! But hell, with you and everybody else whipping a dead horse about Naegi-kun, why **wouldn’t** I want to change?! **I just don’t know how**!”

Sayaka growled lowly, her glare becoming harsher.

“You want… to change…?” She hissed quietly. “If you’re really, truly serious about that… If you **truly** learned your lesson… Stay the **hell** away from Makoto…”

“What?” Celes demanded furiously.

“You’ve already caused enough harm!” Sayaka coldly replied. “The last thing Makoto needs is to get hurt again because you’re **trying** to change… Personally, I don’t see it happening. You’re too damn narcissistic, greedy, and foul! Oogami might have been the Mastermind’s mole, but at least **she** gave a damn about us! At least **she’s** gonna fight the Mastermind with us!”

Just like that, Celes’s rage died off. She stared at Sayaka in shock as she absorbed the latest bit of news.

“Oogami… was a mole…?”

“Not like it matters what **I** say…” Sayaka spat. “You were gonna learn about it eventually, and hate her just like Enoshima, Kirigiri, and Togami do right now… I wish you all could pull your heads out of your asses, but I guess that’s easier said than done!”

Having spoken her piece, Sayaka stormed off. Celes was left to stare off into space, numb and empty inside…

How about that. Just when she thought she couldn’t sink any lower… First time she leaves her room, she finds out her reputation has fallen lower than a puppet of the Mastermind – not that Celes had any room to judge Oogami, after all that she had done. Celes wouldn’t say that she **hated** Oogami for being a mole… True, it did mean she placed a lot less stock and trust in the fighter now.

But then again, Celes hadn’t placed that much trust in her in the first place… Celes hadn’t trusted any of them. And now she was paying the price. She was honestly starting to wish Monokuma hadn’t missed with that truck…

~*~

Sakura hummed patiently as she accessed the cabinet in the chemistry lab.

“While I am grateful for your kindness, Fujisaki… Oowada… I would prefer if you kept your distance. I have every intention of fighting the Mastermind, and I cannot guarantee your safety once the intense battle begins…” The fighter rumbled as she picked up a bottle of protein, holding it up to her face in determination.

Fujisaki stared at Oogami with wide, panicked eyes.

“B-B-But you can’t…!” The programmer cried. “If you attack him, th-that’s a rule violation…!”

Sakura closed her eyes solemnly.

“On the contrary, I may very well be the only one who can…”

Mondo’s hand twitched as he gritted his teeth.

“Fuck that…! If you’re gonna pound that bear into the ground, I’m gonna be right there with you! He’ll run out of copies so fast, we’ll make his head spin!”

Sakura opened her eyes and smiled fondly at the biker, chuckling good-naturedly.

“You’re an impressive man, Oowada… But your instincts need some work. Don’t you remember our first day?”

Mondo blinked in shock as the fighter dredged that up. He blushed a little in embarrassment at the memory of nearly getting blown up…

“I-I-I can… **I’m better now**!” Mondo pounded his chest emphatically in an attempt to convince them that he was serious about this… Too bad not even he seemed very convinced by his bravado.

“I’m sure you are.” Sakura assured the biker she was not making fun of him. “And that is why I’m trusting you to take care of everyone… Keep them safe after you all escape. Promise me.”

Fujisaki teared up at that earnest plea, and Oowada growled in defiance.

“Hey! Don’t you **dare** go saying shit like that now!” Mondo raised a fist in determination, shouting. “We are **all** getting out of here! That **includes** you!”

Even though Mondo had doubts plaguing his mind, he still showed loyalty and respect to those who had earned it. And Sakura more than footed that bill, so he would fight for her, too. Until she actually did something to betray that trust, he was not going to surrender completely to his doubts. It was a man’s promise, and a man kept his word.

“Y-Yeah!” Fujisaki agreed fervently. “We’re all going to work together and get out of here! No more killing!”

Sakura bowed her head humbly. Quietly, she muttered.

“… Thank you both… so much…” Briefly, her old friend, happy and full of life, flashed in her mind, and she tightened her grip on the protein bottle in her hand, careful not to break it.

The fighter looked between the biker and programmer and nodded. Never again. She would never allow another murder to happen. Monokuma was done stealing friends from them.

~*~

“Ahem! May I have your attention, please? May I have your attention, please? Urgent: Please assemble in the gymnasium… Urgent… Urgent… **Urgent** … **URGENT**!” Monokuma’s annoying voice and image flitted across the monitors throughout the school.

In his room, Makoto and Sayaka grew distressed over the sudden summons. Hadn’t it been just a couple of days since the last Class Trial? What in the world was Monokuma up to now?

“… I don’t like this…” Sayaka fretted nervously. Makoto nodded but smiled as reassuringly as he could.

“I know… But what choice do we have? We have to at least follow the rules that don’t involve murdering our friends… Today didn’t go our way, but we’ll try again tomorrow! And the day after that! We’ll… keep trying!”

Sayaka nodded in agreement.

“Y-You’re right… We… We have to hope we can make it through this announcement or whatever it is…”

Makoto kept smiling as best as he could, and they made their way to the gym together. When they reached the entrance, Sakura was there, waiting outside of it.

“O-Oogami…?” Makoto asked in surprise. Sakura looked at them with a neutral face.

“You are the last ones to arrive… The others… are already inside…”

Sayaka’s brow furrowed in concern.

“Why haven’t you gone in yet, Oogami?”

Sakura was silent for a few moments before she crossed her arms calmly.

“… I have… an unpleasant premonition… about what is going to occur…” The fighter revealed. Makoto rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

“Considering it was Monokuma who called us down here, you’re probably right to be cautious…” When the fighter didn’t respond, Makoto’s brow creased in concern. “Oogami…?”

“Naegi…” Sakura rumbled, feeling very anxious. “If… If anything should happen… Please, take care of everyone.”

This only further distressed the luckster and idol.

“O-Oogami…!” Sayaka cried out. “P-Please! Don’t do anything that might endanger yourself! W-We know… not everyone believes in you, b-but… **We** do! A-And Fujisaki! And Oowada! We all believe in you! Please let us help you! Don’t do something reckless!”

Sakura chuckled softly, nodding indulgently.

“And I am thankful, Maizono… Your words mean more to me than you could possibly know.” She turned toward the door sagely, narrowing her eyes. “I simply feel… that whatever comes of this, it is my responsibility to handle. I have bared myself to all of you, so I have nothing to fear if the announcement specifically has to do with me. However… I do not believe it is that simple, unfortunately.”

Anxiously, the three of them made their way inside. As Oogami had said, the other six remaining students were there, scattered about. And shortly after all nine of them had been accounted for, Monokuma made his appearance.

“Welp, let’s not waste any time.” Monokuma declared lazily.

“I’m sure this is just another of your **incentives** , isn’t it?” Togami sneered. Monokuma tilted his head curiously at the heir.

“Hmm…?”

“The reason you gathered us all here is to provide us with another incentive, no?” Togami asked again, getting impatient.

Mondo growled lowly.

“Give us a fucking break! I’m so **sick** of this…!”

Monokuma hung his head in depression.

“Nope… Nope, nope… Nopenopenopenopenopenopenopenopenopenope!” Monokuma denied emphatically. The bear giggled mischievously. “You’re way off! No incentives this time! The reason I gathered you guys here today is so I can clear the books on a grudge I’ve been holding!”

Makoto narrowed his eyes as he puzzled over Monokuma’s words.

_‘What grudge…?’_

“While we may have reason to bear a grudge against you, I can’t imagine why you would have one against us.” Kirigiri spoke Makoto’s thoughts.

Monokuma sneered.

“Like I said yesterday, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!”

“Enough with the ambiguities!” Togami barked. “Spit it out, what do you want from us?”

Monokuma giggled, paws over his mouth mischievously.

“Hey, Togami…? Do you remember that neat little secret I gave you waaay back in the second incentive…?”

The heir narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

“If you think I’m going to spit it out here, you have another thing…!”

“It ain’t much of a secret anymore!” Monokuma laughed, clutching his belly. Togami looked at everyone else, dumbstruck.

“ **What**?!”

Kirigiri calmly closed her eyes and nodded.

“That’s right… Oogami approached us about it. We know she… was Monokuma’s mole.” The mysterious girl explained.

Celes had her hands on her hips. She was back in her Celestia Ludenberg guise, just in a slightly different gothic dress than before.

“Even I have heard about it, by now…”

Fujisaki, Oowada, Maizono, and Naegi all had determined faces, willing to believe in the Ultimate Fighter. Kirigiri was calm and composed. Celes was stoic. Enoshima was ghastly pale, and she was glaring daggers at the Ultimate Fighter.

Togami just panned his eyes around the room in disbelief. But just as the rest of them were starting to relax…

“Buuut! That’s **not** why I called ya here today!” Monokuma pounced on their insecurities, showing off his grinning half as he held up a paw. “I’ve got a different grudge, so Oogami’s just gonna have to wait! I think it’s time we addressed the elephant in the room.”

“The… elephant… in the room…?” Makoto echoed, feeling a chill go down his spine. Monokuma chuckled.

“Yup! Remember way back in the first trial, when you guys were all nosy about a certain detail of my courtroom…?” Monokuma took glee in their confusion. “I think now’s the perfect time to cough up that answer!”

“What are you talking about…?!” Togami growled impatiently.

Instead of answering in mere words, Monokuma did something totally unexpected. He charged Enoshima… leaped in the air… and tore off her…

“Wig?!” Makoto gaped, shocked as everyone else was. Standing there where the nation’s top supermodel had once stood… was a short black-haired girl in the same outfit. Monokuma took advantage of everyone’s stunned states and leaped back to the stage, tossing the wig away like a filthy rag.

“I know, I know! I was a naaauuughty bear and kept this from my beloved students! However, this academic coliseum was always between **sixteen students** , not fifteen! I just allowed this feisty little minx to roam and pounce a little before things kicked off… So she posed as Junko Enoshima, all this time!”

Togami whirled on Monokuma sharply, narrowing his eyes.

“Who is she?” The heir demanded. Clearly, he didn’t buy that she was just another student in this ‘coliseum’ like they were…

“Mukuro Ikusaba! The Ultimate Soldier!” Monokuma preened. “I know, I know! I’ll even give you **full** transparency! I didn’t just give Ikusaba a chance to replace and pose as one of you… She was actually another lovely worker bee for yours truly! Yet another mole working for the magnificent Mastermind~!”

A suffocating silence filled the room as the students processed this – some of them alternating wary looks between Mukuro and Monokuma both. Makoto himself just… couldn’t take his eyes off of Mukuro. All this time… Had he really gotten to know **her** , or was she just posing as Junko Enoshima…?

“Wh… Why…?” Mukuro’s voice cracked as her attention was fully on Monokuma now. She’d been too stunned to react to Monokuma ripping off her wig earlier… but now… Well, in the end it hadn’t mattered that she hadn’t been on her game. Monokuma was revealing it all, anyway.

Monokuma tilted his head at the soldier cutely.

“Hmm…? Whazzat…? Did the ugly little piggy remember how to squeal? Oops! Sorry. I already did that for ya. You can thank me later!” The bear cackled, clutching his stomach.

Togami clenched his fist and snarled at the bear.

“How… is **any** of this fair?! Not one mole, but **two**?! You’ve trampled and destroyed the nature of the game!” The heir hissed.

Monokuma stiffened at the accusation.

“Ex…squeeze me?” Monokuma turned to Togami specifically, radiating steam in anger. “I have done no such thing, kind sir! Did these two useless wastes of space kill anyone unfairly? Is there a ‘no moles’ clause that I missed...? No…? Then I’d **beary** much appreciate if you withdraw that ludicrous accusation!”

Celes deadpanned at the pun.

“It wasn’t any funnier the first time, and it is most certainly **not** amusing now…” The gambler dryly quipped. She curled a lock of hair around her finger. “What about the Gamemaster being impartial…? Having two rats must certainly break **some** kind of rule…”

Monokuma huffed exasperatedly.

“Does not! I was totally gonna execute their asses once they committed a murder!” The bear giggled hysterically. “… Still am, in fact! Those losers are chained to the **same** rules as you. Only difference is, they’re under my thumb!”

Mukuro grew more ashen. The same rules…? That… that couldn’t be right… This had to be… some kind of trick. The Mastermind wouldn’t do that to her.

… Except Mukuro saw **no way** that this benefited her…

Kirigiri crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

“Why abandon your lackeys? Why now?”

Monokuma tilted his head at her next.

“Lac… **keys**? They ain’t the **keys** to my success, I’ll tell ya that much!” Monokuma scoffed. “Do I need a reason for everything…? I’m the boss, and I decide when to cut off **loose ends**!”

Monokuma raised his paws angrily.

“You should really be thanking me! Two dirty, rotten traitors right there in your midst! I don’t hafta tell ya what to do ‘em, but I’m sure as hell washin’ my hands of ‘em! Gut ‘em, chop off their heads, boil ‘em alive! I don’t care!” Monokuma’s paws flew over his mouth again as he giggled.

“Ultimate… Soldier…?” Mondo breathed in stunned disbelief. “How the **fuck** do we fight against that?!”

Monokuma rubbed the back of his head bashfully.

“Have no fear! I’m a **fair** bear! That’s why I brought you guys party favors in case you wanna make your **point**!” The bear cackled, and in the next moment, a huge pile of weapons rained down from the ceiling. Swords, axes, clubs… There was even a chainsaw… So many weapons… Monokuma drank in the evident horror and despair at the sight of such dangerous tools. “Oopsie! I **suppose** if you’re not careful, she might use these against you! Upupu! So **exciting**!”

And just like that… the bear vamoosed. And also just like that, the students were hit with the dawning realization that they were in the presence of the **Ultimate Soldier** … near a pile of **weapons** , no less…

Makoto shook his head vigorously. No. He couldn’t just buy Monokuma’s lies like that! Even if… Even if this was a completely different person, he couldn’t just believe they were working for Monokuma…!

“I-Ikusaba!” Makoto called out, startling everyone. “It’s… It’s not true! Please tell us it’s not true!”

Mukuro had felt like a deer in headlights before Makoto had spoken up, but now she felt like the “car” was racing at her at full tilt.

“I-I…!” The soldier choked out, incapable of forming a sentence in her current state. Her fight-or-flight instincts were going haywire.

Kirigiri narrowed her eyes at the soldier.

“It’s a rather simple request, don’t you think? Is it true, or is it not?”

At Mukuro’s continued silence, Sakura crossed her arms and frowned deeply.

“Hold on, please… Do not gang up on her. Her mind… must be experiencing a crisis. The very same one I hoped to avoid by confessing to all of you. Cornering her like this… will not end well.”

Togami scoffed at the advice.

“A ‘crisis’? Truly? What makes you think that she is on **your** side? Then again, she’s most certainly not on ours…”

Mondo’s hand twitched violently.

“What the **hell** are you talking about?! What’s this shit about sides?!”

Togami crossed his arms and glowered at the biker.

“I am, of course, referring to us, the players… and **them** , the interlopers…” He sneered, jerking his head at Sakura and Mukuro. “I don’t care what excuses Monokuma coughs up. They **taint** the purity of an otherwise thrilling game… Even if he did create the problem in the first place, he was right that we need to incinerate the **rot** that doesn’t belong… How **else** can this be a fair game between players?”

Mondo’s eyes bulged and he roared angrily.

“The **fuck** I’m on **your** side, asshole! Fujisaki, Naegi, Maizono, Oogami, hell, even Kirigiri can be **okay** … But **you**? The murdering bitch over there?” He pointed at Celes furiously. And then at Mukuro. “I don’t even know what to think about her! I just know if there’s any bastards around here, it’s you and Ludenberg!”

“Spoken like a true Neanderthal…” Togami sneered. “And what exactly are your criteria for calling Oogami your ‘ally’? Please, **illuminate** me!”

Mondo cracked his knuckles threateningly.

“That’s it! You’re dead…!”

“P-P-Please don’t fight…!” Fujisaki begged, trying to hold the biker back.

Makoto’s face became determined as he faced Togami.

“Oogami’s our friend because we heard it from her! Monokuma is holding her dojo hostage! She didn’t have a choice, but now she’s resolved to fight the Puppetmaster!” Makoto placed a hand over his chest. “That’s why I believe in Oogami! And… that’s why… I want to believe in Ikusaba!”

Sayaka’s eyes softened as she looked to Makoto. She didn’t quite know what to think herself, but… She did know Ikusaba cared for him. And it was impossible to fake that. But even so… Ikusaba also worked with the Puppetmaster, and so they didn’t know her completely. That **did** make Sayaka nervous and cautious about trusting her so easily…

Celes also found herself eyeing the luckster, feeling a bit of ugly jealousy rise up in her... Makoto spoke about trusting these… traitors… And he wouldn’t even look at her. She knew that it was simply because they were the main attraction of this latest circus… But even so…

“Ergo, they’re no longer our enemies? Ergo, they’re our friends and we can place our full trust in them? Is that it?” Togami demanded stonily. “You’re ridiculous. What kind of fairytale world do you live in? **They** were the Puppetmaster’s puppets! Like hell I’m giving them my trust that easily.”

Celes looked to the side, disinterestedly.

“… He does have a point…” The gambler conceded. But Togami pressed on, ignoring her.

“In any event, who’s to say either of them **actually** betrayed the Puppetmaster?” Togami snarled. He pointed to each of them in turn. “ **She** went to you with a sob story about her dojo supposedly being held hostage… Thus, she could still potentially be in the Puppetmaster’s pocket, feigning defect… And **she** hasn’t said a word since Monokuma ratted her out! Either Monokuma disposed of her because she’s worthless, or he’s once again setting up your expectations just to knock them back down!”

Sakura clenched her fist in frustration.

“Togami… stop this…”

Togami ignored the plea and turned on her.

“Alright… If you’re so sincere, Oogami, tell us this: who is the Puppetmaster? Give me his name.”

“I…” Sakura trailed off helplessly before crossing her arms and sighing deeply again. “Forgive me. I don’t know anything.”

“You don’t know anything?” Togami mocked. “It’s getting harder and harder to believe you.”

Fujisaki teared up at the heir’s harsh countenance.

“P-Please…! She’s telling the truth! Please believe her!”

“Shut up. I’m not done with her.” Togami barked at the programmer, ignoring the seething biker he riled up by doing so. He turned his attention back to the Ultimate Fighter. “Next question: What is this ‘promise’ Monokuma mentioned? That was on the scrap of paper he gave me in the second round, and it always stuck out to me. What have you been ordered to do?”

The room went quiet again as Sakura composed her thoughts again. She’d revealed this to most of them, but Togami and Celes were still in the dark.

“The… order I was given… was to murder someone.”

Togami shook his head ruefully.

“I see… so even now –at this very moment—our lives are in danger…”

Sayaka shook her head fiercely.

“Oogami said she wasn’t going to kill anyone! She’s… She’s going to fight the Mastermind with us…!”

Togami sharply glared at the idol, as if dissecting her. He then smirked.

“Alright… Let’s say, **hypothetically** , I believe Oogami’s fairytale… **What about Ikusaba**? She **still** hasn’t said so much as a word!”

Another uneasy silence washed over the group as they turned to Ikusaba yet again, who remained frozen in place. Despite Togami’s interrogation, Sakura took a softer tone with her.

“Ikusaba… I implore you. Don’t let… Do not let this unravel you.” The fighter closed her eyes, sighing tiredly. “We are… both of us… guilty of betraying our friends by cooperating with Monokuma. I do not know your circumstances, nor do I demand you tell us now. But… Please know, there is hope for us yet. You and I… we can atone for our misdeeds.”

If nothing else, Sakura’s words seemed to snap Mukuro out of her daze… Unfortunately, they did not have the intended soothing, calming effect.

“I-I… t-told you b-before…” Mukuro quivered, glaring at Sakura with hot tears pouring from her eyes. “F-F-Fat load of good **that’s** going to do…!”

Mukuro sobbed, and then… she bolted. She ran away faster than ‘Junko Enoshima’ ever could. Sakura had even snapped to attention at the abrupt action, but calmed down once it was clear the soldier was not on the attack… It was unfortunate she chose to run, but even that decision highlighted the soldier’s humanity.

She was scared. Terrified. The Mastermind had thrown her away like garbage, and she was left cornered by the people she had come to call friends. Sakura could relate with her completely… And it made her resolve all the stronger. The resolve to fight the Mastermind… and to help Ikusaba.

Sakura’s instincts had been right on the money. She did feel responsible for the Ultimate Soldier. They were like long lost sisters… It was her duty to help Ikusaba, since the soldier must be feeling so lost. It was overly idealistic, but Sakura wished to believe Mukuro wasn’t self-centered or condescending like Togami and Celes.

Not long after Mukuro ran off, the nighttime announcement rang out on the monitors. Togami spoke up again.

“Well, look at the time. Let’s get going then, shall we?”

Sayaka trembled angrily as she glared at the uncaring heir.

“H-Hold on…! We haven’t finished talking…!”

“But we have.” Togami cut her off coldly. “She is our enemy. Oogami is, too. That’s all there is to it.”

“I **told** you! You’re not our ally, asshole!” Mondo roared furiously. Fujisaki teared up yet again.

“Wh-Why…? Why won’t you try to understand Oogami…? Why can’t we hear Ikusaba out…? I’m sure… we can understand her, if we just try…!”

Togami snorted in disbelief.

“Well? How about you? Do **you** think you understand her?” The heir pointed at the fighter. “ **No one** knew who she really was, except me!”

“So why didn’t **you** say anything, if you’re **such** a great friend of ours?!” Mondo snapped.

Kirigiri sighed patiently.

“Everyone… Talking about this right now isn’t going to accomplish anything. Let’s call it a night.”

Sayaka’s eyes hardened as she glared at Kirigiri.

“But that’s not fair to…!”

“We can continue the discussion tomorrow…” Kirigiri insisted. “Sleep on it—give yourself some time to cool off.”

Makoto sighed patiently and nodded slowly.

“She’s… Kirigiri’s right…” The luckster rubbed the back of his neck. “We got some major bombshells dropped on us, and I really don’t want us arguing about this without clear minds… We can’t fall for Monokuma’s trap again!”

They just couldn’t… If they lost any more, they’d be down to half the original group they had, at least. Tempers were high – the tension in the air was palpable. Even as they all made their ways back to the dorms, the uneasy ‘truce’ they had hung over them like a thick cloud…

Their bonds were brittle. And Makoto didn’t like that…

~*~

Mukuro panted as she reached the fourth floor. She’d run a marathon from the gym to get there, and she wasn’t going to stop now – she was so close.

There.

Mukuro lunged and started pounding on the door to the data processing room. She knew Junko wouldn’t want to see her face-to-face… but… that was fine.

**That was fine**.

If she kicked up enough of a ruckus, she was bound to send a Monokuma to stop her from violating the new rule about breaking down doors. And that… that was all the opening Mukuro needed. Mukuro didn’t care how, she just… she just **needed to talk**!

Yet even as Mukuro threw herself at that door with reckless abandon, there wasn’t even a hint of a single Monokuma bear loitering the halls… Not even a cackle from inside the data processing room.

She was still abandoned. Trapped out here with people she wasn’t sure she could call friends anymore. Not after everything she helped put them through. Isolated, and maybe even reviled from the only family she had left…

Mukuro narrowed her eyes as she threw herself at the door harder.

No. She wouldn’t think like that. **Couldn’t** think like that. Junko was doing this for Despair! Junko only did these horrible things to the people she loved. Even her boyfriend Yasuke… She killed him…

Mukuro’s face went green as that memory hit her. She had even helped with that one…

“No… nonono…” Mukuro pounded at the door more urgently. “ **Junko**! Open up! **PLEASE**...!”

The problem with the philosophy of Despair is that it blurred the line between love and hate… And Mukuro needed to know Junko still loved her.

**She had to know** …

Junko was always a safety net for her. When all others failed, when they rejected her, and they always did, Mukuro could fall back to Junko, unwaveringly.

_‘Naegi-kun never failed you, either… He supported you... without question…’_ A voice echoed in the back of Mukuro’s head. Out loud, she screamed. “ **SHUT UP**!!!”

Makoto was tempting. Alluring. And warm. But she had betrayed him from the beginning… He would never accept her. That’s what Mukuro feared above all else. If she actually heard his rejection from his lips… she… she would not make it.

But it was the same with Junko. Prickly treatment aside, Junko was **family**. And Mukuro had abandoned that family once, to run off with Fenrir. She couldn’t do that again!

… Why wasn’t Junko talking to her…?

“Someone just tell me what to do…!” The soldier begged.

… Still no answer…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... So, I wanted to spoil you guys just one more time, since the writing for Chapter 4 is going pretty swimmingly. This weekend has been pretty productive, and I wanted to replace that predictable anxiety with a slightly less predictable one. :3 What do YOU think is gonna happen next? I already know, of course, since it's written out. But I do so love hearing the theories~
> 
> Are we having fun yet?


	18. Chapter 4, Part 4: All All Apologies

_“I didn’t know you had a sister…”_

_To Naegi’s credit, he only leaped about half a foot in the air… and without screaming this time, too. And without dropping the framed picture of his family. He patted his chest to slow his speeding heart down and smiled wryly at the overly curious soldier._

_“E-Ehe… Hey, Ikusaba…” He rubbed the back of his neck and nodded slowly at her. “Yeah, I think Sayaka’s the only one who knows about, let alone meet, Komaru. Not that I mind introducing her to you guys… It’s just… never come up.”_

_Mukuro tilted her head slightly as she looked at the picture more closely. Makoto sweatdropped at the familiar sight. Having a girl randomly intrude on his dorm room might have most guys with beet red faces and sweaty palms, and he even had been like that the first few times Ikusaba had done it… But by now he’d come to accept her quirks. Ikusaba was protective… and a bit nosy, at times._

_It wasn’t a bad thing. He even kind of found her curiosity cute and endearing, a lot of the time… Being a soldier left her floundering in a ton of common social norms and customs; it was just… culture shock, really. No different from the shock he went through, being exposed to so many eccentric and amazing people…_

_And if you thought **his** class was quirky, you should see his senpai. The 77th Class was definitely a kooky bunch…_

_“… She doesn’t have an ahoge…” Mukuro mused neutrally. Makoto laughed nervously at that being her first observation. He’d definitely have to be careful about bringing Mukuro around. The ahoge was like a taboo with Komaru…_

_“She… finds ways to keep it down…” The luckster scratched his cheek nervously. Was hair really the only way people identified him and his sister…?_

_… Don’t answer that. He already knew._

_“Your family looks nice.” Mukuro blinked slowly as she herself registered the ahoge was the first thing she commented on. She and Junko were twins, and they were pretty different. Komaru-chan didn’t need to be a mirror image of her brother._

_“Well, we’re a family you’d see anywhere…” Makoto bashfully rubbed the back of his neck again. “Mom and dad work, but still find time for me and Komaru… And Komaru, well, we share a lot of the same interests. We watch TV, share manga with each other… Even attend Sayaka’s concerts together. Of course, we don’t always get along… We argue a lot. And she doesn’t think I’m too reliable… which is kinda fair. I’m a bit too average for being super reliable, but I try.”_

_Mukuro frowned lightly as she listened to the luckster describe his family. Was… that how most siblings interacted? Junko preferred doing things alone, but she supposed all the insults and bossing around could be construed as ‘arguing’… maybe…? Mukuro wasn’t sure. But either way, Junko still counted on her for stuff that mattered, and Mukuro tried sharing the same interests as Junko…_

_The soldier nodded slowly. Yeah… Their dynamic wasn’t too different from Naegi-kun and his sister’s. That had to be the case._

_“It’s okay…” Mukuro patted the luckster’s head awkwardly. “Junko-chan likes to call me useless, smelly, and ugly, too.”_

_Makoto sweatdropped at Mukuro’s brief description._

_“I… wouldn’t say Komaru ever goes **that** far…” He knew Junko snubbed Mukuro while in public, but he figured that was the extent of it. But useless, smelly, and ugly? Really…?_

_“Do you feel the need to watch out for Komaru-chan?” Mukuro tilted her head, oblivious to Makoto’s slight concern._

_Makoto blinked before releasing a dry laugh._

_“Of course! That’s just how older siblings are, though. I know you take pretty good care of Junko, so you and I can relate!” He patted the back of the soldier’s shoulder warmly._

_Mukuro froze._

_“W-We… can relate…?” The dark-haired girl stuttered out, blood rushing to her face._

_Makoto just **smiled**. It was… different from Junko’s smiles… Made her warm, and a fluttery feeling enter her chest… _

_“Yeah! Don’t you think so? I think besides us, Yamada’s the only one in our class with a little sister… So it’s something unique we have in common. Least I think so.” The luckster just kept grinning obliviously._

_Mukuro lowered her head bashfully, slight steam rising from her red face. She hadn’t noticed that similarity, actually. She and Makoto… had something in common…_

_“Ikusaba?” Makoto’s brow creased in concern. “You okay?”_

_More steam exploded from Mukuro’s face as her thoughts kinda got away from her. She didn’t know when she started feeling a little competitive with the Ultimate Pop Idol, but she did feel a little too proud in this moment to simply dismiss it…_

_… Not that she would mind rubbing it in Maizono’s face… just a little…_

~*~

Makoto awoke with some trepidation. He didn’t want to believe another murder was possible… But the tension from yesterday was still suffocating, even from within his own room. Not that Sayaka was mad at him or anything… In fact, she was anxious as he was, and practically held his hand for comfort at the first opportunity.

It was with that uneasiness that they made their way to the cafeteria… They weren’t sure what they would find, but even what they saw somehow defied expectations.

Seven of them were together in the cafeteria.

“Yo, Naegi!” Mondo greeted as soon as he and Sayaka arrived. “You still kickin’?”

Makoto’s brow furrowed at the greeting.

“Still kicking? What’s that supposed to mean?”

Celes had her hands on her hips, still in the same gothic attire from last night.

“You two took a while to show up… He was starting to worry about you.”

Togami rolled his eyes.

“You dullard…”

“ **What you’d call me**?!” Mondo roared, raising his fist threateningly at the heir.

“Togami… Celes… You two are here…” Makoto frowned thoughtfully. “How come…?”

Not that the luckster minded any change of heart they might have had… but he had a hunch this wasn’t about any change for the better. He was proven correct when Fujisaki spoke up.

“Th-They say they’re taking refuge…” The programmer explained.

“Refuge?” Sayaka echoed, having the same suspicions Makoto did.

“Don’t look so flabbergasted.” Togami scoffed at the pair. “I’m here to protect myself from the Puppetmaster’s lackeys!”

“Lackeys?” Makoto repeated incredulously. “You’re still on about that?!”

Sayaka narrowed her eyes once she realized the only two missing were Sakura and Mukuro.

“Wait… where **are** Oogami and Ikusaba?” While the idol still didn’t know what to think about the soldier, she still cared for Oogami, at the very least. Honestly, she didn’t want anything to befall either of them. But with the way things were going…

“If even one of them was here, **I** wouldn’t be…” Togami asserted arrogantly. “And that is precisely why I am here to take refuge from those menaces.”

“Menaces…?” Makoto really didn’t like the direction this was turning…

Mondo growled lowly.

“Hey, asshole… I get your paranoia about Ikusaba, ‘cause we don’t know shit about her… But why are you still treating Oogami like a bad guy?” The biker demanded to know. Togami snorted derisively.

“Why wouldn’t I? Their presence here isn’t fair!”

“This again?!” Makoto exclaimed, a little exasperated.

“A game must be fair to all participants—however, a mole is an impediment to fairness…” Togami reiterated himself condescendingly.

“That’s your reason?!” Sayaka yelled in disbelief. “So stupid…!”

Togami rounded on the idol furiously.

“Stupid? Do you not remember the game’s stakes? **Our lives**.”

“You are a **dumbass**!” Mondo raged at the heir. Kirigiri sighed patiently.

“Hey… rather than bickering, why don’t we think things through again? Why do you think the Mastermind gave Ikusaba up?” She pressed, looking to each of them in turn.

Fujisaki poked his index fingers together nervously.

“W-Well… Didn’t he say it was an ‘eye for eye, a tooth for a tooth’?”

Celes shook her head.

“Kirigiri’s right… That can’t be the only reason. For all the bear’s theatrics, his motives go pretty far down the rabbit hole…”

Mondo growled at the gambler.

“Did we **say** we wanted your input, bitch?!” This only earned a sigh from the gambler before she fell silent as ‘requested’.

Still, Kirigiri nodded toward Celes, acknowledging her point.

“I think this really is his ‘incentive’ to us, this time… Fear and doubt giving rise to discord, dissonance, and, ultimately, enmity… This quarrelling, this being at each other’s throats—this is exactly what the Puppetmaster was going for. Despite all that… do you still intend to keep quarrelling?”

Sayaka scowled as the mysterious girl brought up this point.

“It’s not that I want all this fighting… I just… Oogami deserves our trust and support! Why can’t everyone see that?!”

“I suppose I would throw in my lot if she actually managed to take down that bastard bear…” Celes offered up conversationally.

“B-But what if something happened to her if she tried by herself?!” Fujisaki cried out in distress. Togami chuckled darkly.

“I don’t see the problem. Oogami’s death just means one less man on the Puppetmaster’s side. Like I said: no problem.”

“H-Hold on, Togami…!” Makoto cried out. But Togami pressed on.

“In the ideal situation, Oogami, Ikusaba, and Monokuma would take each other out… However, I don’t see that happening. Still, if Oogami and Ikusaba took each other out, that would be a consolation prize that I could accept. That would resolve this mess, too! Problem solved!”

No sooner had those words left Togami’s mouth than did Mondo charge the heir and slug him in the face, knocking his glasses askew and sending the heir stumbling back several feet.

“What… was that for…?” Togami hissed darkly.

“You’re a piece of shit…!” Mondo roared back at him. “Human life ain’t like your fucking money! You can’t just throw it away when it’s ‘inconvenient’ to you! If you start talkin’ like that… then **you** should be the one… to die…!”

Togami clenched a fist indignantly.

“I… should die? Outstanding… Why don’t you give it a try? Go on. Try and kill me. Those **are** the rules.”

Mondo snarled.

“You don’t think I can?! I beat down cops daily to save my boys! Killing your scrawny ass is gonna be a **cakewalk**!”

Fujisaki wrung his hands distressfully.

“O-Oowada, no…!”

And only then did Mondo calm down enough to realize he was doing it **again** … Giving into that anger. That rage. He bowed his head in shame, unable to look Fujisaki in the eye.

“I doubt Oogami would want you guys fighting over her…” Kirigiri pointed out reasonably. “But this is **exactly** what the Puppetmaster wants.”

Mondo gritted his teeth and kept his head bowed. He knew that… He **knew** that…! She didn’t need to rub it in!

“What? Are you not going to kill me?” Togami kept provoking the biker, regardless.

Mondo said nothing for a while. He just kept his head bowed and hands on his hips. Then, he muttered flatly.

“… I’m going to my room.” He started to stalk out of the cafeteria, trembling with rage. Fujisaki made to follow him worriedly, but Mondo stopped him, holding up a hand shakily. “Sorry, kid… I just… need to be alone for a bit. I’ll… I’ll check on you later, okay?”

Fujisaki didn’t agree with that at all, but he acquiesced. He hoped his friend would be okay… But he felt just awful, helplessly watching him leave the cafeteria unsteadily. Alone.

“Well, this is going just **swimmingly** …” Celes deadpanned, hands on her hips. Togami scoffed.

“A dullard lacking a spine… Hardly the slightest bit amusing.”

Kirigiri gave the heir a stern glance.

“You seem to give very little consideration for human emotion, Togami…”

“What’s your point?” Togami flippantly asked.

“A word of warning: that **will** come back to haunt you someday…” Kirigiri warned him. A shame Togami didn’t seem to appreciate it.

“My deepest gratitude for the advice… I’ll be sure not to pay it any mind…” Togami arrogantly asserted.

Sayaka growled a little in frustration, looking between Celes and Kirigiri.

“He’s not the only one who could learn to consider others’ feelings…” The idol snapped.

Celes narrowed her eyes at the barb, while Kirigiri closed her eyes and sighed patiently.

“I will make no excuses for my past mistakes…” Kirigiri conceded humbly. She crossed her arms and looked the idol in the eye. “I won’t retract what I told you, however. Risk is unavoidable. But… I will concede that I **should** have at least warned Naegi-kun to be careful.”

This concession earned startled, wide eyes from Makoto, Sayaka, and Chihiro. This was probably the closest to an apology they could expect from the mysterious girl… Sayaka still felt a little bitter about Makoto being put in danger, but she could feel just a little tension leave her shoulders that Kirigiri admitted she was wrong, at least to an extent. Makoto himself felt much better about not holding a grudge. And Chihiro was relieved everyone seemed to be getting along.

… Well, most of them…

“Oh?” Togami sneered at the lilac-haired girl. “Lecturing me when you have your own problems…? How hypocritical, Kirigiri. Shame on you.”

Kirigiri didn’t rise to the bait. Celes arched an eyebrow suspiciously.

“You failed to warn Naegi-kun about something…? Did something happen?”

Sayaka narrowed her eyes at the gambler.

“It’s none of your business, since you wouldn’t care anyway! It doesn’t involve **you**!”

The gambler closed her eyes and sighed tiredly.

“I realize… this was a mistake, coming here today…” Celes stood up, and briskly took her leave.

Sayaka looked like she had more that she wanted to say to that, but Makoto stopped her.

“Maizono… Stay here, I’ll be right back.” The luckster stood up and started jogging after the gambler.

“Makoto?!” Sayaka called after him, to no avail. She wanted to give chase, but Kirigiri gave her food for thought.

“Maizono… I know that you have every reason to hate Celes for what she did. But aren’t you being a hypocrite, lecturing us?” The mysterious girl gestured at herself and Togami. “When you don’t even consider Celes’s feelings? This isn’t sustainable. We need to calm down, and at least form a truce until we escape. All this conflict is exactly what Monokuma wants…”

Sayaka chewed her lower lip as she digested the advice. Was she being too harsh with Celes? Was it even possible to be too harsh with her…? After everything she tried to do?

Togami snorted derisively.

“You keep saying that drivel. But we’re all competitors in this coliseum. Maizono’s just now realizing that. It won’t be long now until she starts doubting even Naegi!”

Sayaka glared at the heir.

“I won’t **ever** doubt Makoto!” Not about this Killing Game. And certainly not about their loyalty toward each other…

“But you do, don’t you?” Togami sneered. “You don’t approve of his ‘friendship’ with Ludenberg… Or at least his laughable attempts at friendship. You have doubts about his taste in ‘friends’.”

Sayaka wanted to deny it flat out. Togami was just wrong. She didn’t have **doubts** … She **was** concerned for him, though. Deeply concerned. Sayaka didn’t want Makoto to get hurt… That was why Celes, Kirigiri, even Ikusaba upset her so much. Celes… tried to kill everyone and escape with him; that devastated Makoto. Kirigiri… used him as a guinea pig, and told him to just walk it off. And Ikusaba…

Well. Sayaka just didn’t know what to think about her. It would help if the soldier talked with them, told her side of the story… But Ikusaba couldn’t even do that much. She ran, and was still hiding from them. It heavily incriminated her, Sayaka just couldn’t say it conclusively labeled her as a traitor…

“Naegi is… soft.” Kirigiri mused, crossing her arms and cupping her chin. Sayaka looked to her, lost. “Without a doubt, his kindness is going to get him hurt. There are too many people out there who would abuse and lie to him.”

Sayaka looked down morosely, feeling that the lilac-haired girl was being too harsh. Yet she wasn’t finished.

“But that kindness… is also his saving grace.” Kirigiri lowered her arms and offered the idol a small, consoling smile. “It’s naïve of him to be so soft. And yet, that kindness changes people for the better. Don’t you think?”

Sayaka looked up at Kyoko in shock. Fujisaki was smiling in relief again, and that encouraged a bright smile to blossom on Maizono’s face as well. Sayaka definitely believed that with all her heart… She would be a very different person if she hadn’t reunited with Makoto. If he wasn’t here… she might even be dead by now…

Was she really petty enough to deny Celes the same saving grace?

“Preposterous…” Togami scoffed. “Asahina died because she had that same annoying naivety, didn’t she? It’s only a matter of time until Naegi dies, too.”

Kirigiri shook her head slowly.

“Asahina’s circumstances are much different than what you’re implying… Her ‘naivety’ had nothing to do with how she died. Ishimaru literally chose her by chance. It could have been Fujisaki, or Kuwata, or Yamada, and Ishimaru would have tried to kill them out of convenience. Because he wanted to protect Oowada.”

Togami clicked his tongue but did not offer up a rebuttal for that. Sayaka’s smile became a little self-deprecating.

… No. She wasn’t going to ruin Celes’s chances at redemption. She was still mad about what Celes tried to do… But Celes deserved the same chance as everyone else. She would just have to be there if Makoto wound up hurt again…

It wasn’t pleasant to admit, but Kirigiri was right… to an extent… Risk was unavoidable.

~*~

“Celes…!”

The gambler came to a halt as the luckster caught up to her. Stiffly, she kept herself facing away from him.

“What do you want, Naegi-kun…? Maizono and Oowada more than made it clear my presence is troublesome.”

Makoto took a moment to catch his breath before he stood up straight and locked his eyes on the back of her head.

“We can’t blame them for being upset!” Makoto reasoned calmly. “You… You did some awful things, Celes… No dream can be worth a human life, let alone two. And acting like it’s no big deal… That’s only going to make people angrier!”

Celes kept her back to the luckster, refusing to show her emotions to him.

“You yourself are upset, are you not? Even though everything I did was for our benefit… You can’t find it in your heart to forgive me. I went too far, even by your standards…”

Makoto looked down morosely. He couldn’t deny the truth of those words.

“I… I am upset.” Makoto conceded. He clenched a hand into a fist in frustration, looking down at it. “I’m sad that you… that you don’t care about the others. At least not enough to prioritize their lives… I’m angry that you lied to Yamada like that, and stabbed him in the back… I’m angry you were trying to steer the trial in your favor, thinking everything was going according to plan…”

Makoto shook his head slowly, squeezing his eyes shut tight.

“But I guess most of all… I’m angry at myself. If I’d just been more aware. If I had known about your insecurities. If I had just been a better friend, asked about your dream sooner… Maybe Yamada would still be with us. And Kuwata. Maybe even you would have felt better… I’m… I’m sorry, Celes. I acknowledge my part in all this.”

As his eyes were still closed, Makoto missed the fact Celes’s shoulders were trembling. He would have missed the hot tears cascading down her face regardless, but he would have seen his words had an impact.

“You really… You really believe that? You hold yourself responsible for everything I did…?” The gambler couldn’t keep the hoarseness out of her voice, or the slight hitch as she tried to hold back a sob.

Makoto slowly opened his eyes, staring at the floor morosely.

“I know I can’t take the blame for everything. I didn’t force you to do any of it…” Makoto muttered bitterly. He then looked up with determination. “But I **know** you wouldn’t have gone to those lengths if you weren’t trapped in here! If Monokuma didn’t tempt you. He likes to say that everything that happens is our fault, but the only reason we’re here is because he forces us to be! He makes all these stupid rules and presses our buttons until we do what **he** wants!”

Makoto looked down at his hand with a mixture of emotions coursing through him.

“I… I just can’t help feeling… If I’d been a better friend, that you wouldn’t have felt the need to try and escape. I can’t make you feel hope about certain things we find, but… I can at least listen to you. And even if I can’t agree with everything you think or feel, at least I can support you as a friend! I can… I **should** be doing a lot better than this… And I’m sorry I didn’t notice it sooner!”

Makoto tensed as Celes practically threw herself at him, wrapping him in a tight hug. He could feel her tears sliding down his neck.

“Celes…?” The luckster asked carefully, arms frozen at his sides.

The gambler didn’t answer him right away. But when she did, her voice was deathly quiet. Fragile.

“It is **not** your fault… Don’t ever tell yourself otherwise. **I** was the fool… I reaped precisely what I sowed. Yamada paid the price for my foolishness. And I can’t deny that I would have done the exact same thing in Kuwata’s position… I am not a good person, Naegi… But I thank you… for your generous friendship. I do not deserve it.”

Makoto smiled ruefully and returned Celes’s embrace, rubbing her back soothingly. He knew that Celes was going to struggle, recovering from this. She needed to change. A budding friendship with him would only get her so far; if she could warm up to the others, little by little… That would go a long way in atoning for what she tried to do. And it would mend the bridges she burned for the sake of her dream.

The luckster truly believed she could do it. Acknowledging that she was wrong was the first step to recovery, and he wouldn’t let her relapse. Not when she had this second chance. To live not just for herself, but for Yamada… for Kuwata…

This was a second chance for him too, after all. A second chance to salvage a friendship. Chances like this… never came around, in this place.

~*~

Mukuro laid pitifully right outside the data processing room, which remained locked. She really thought that she had shed all the tears that she possibly could… Her eyes, red and puffy, hurt. It pained her to be awake this long, but if she closed her eyes for even a moment… if she dozed off… She would miss her chance. Monokuma could walk by at any moment, and he was probably just waiting for her to slip up.

If she had any energy, the soldier would have twitched in annoyance as somebody approached her… The last person on earth she wanted to see right now.

“Ikusaba… I feared I might find you here.” Sakura came to a stop a few feet away from the soldier. She crossed her arms and looked toward the data processing room’s door. “What do you hope to find here…?”

“I dunno.” Mukuro flippantly replied, her eyes remaining dead to the world. “Do I have anywhere else to go?”

Sakura frowned deeply at the soldier’s attitude.

“Of course you do. You have friends downstairs, who are more than willing to listen and sympathize with you. **I** am willing to lend you an ear…”

Mukuro scoffed.

“Coulda fooled me… They all seemed pretty eager to fry me, cook me, filet me… Hell, maybe even slather me up with Ishimaru jelly and eat me… Wouldn’t be hard, either, with all those nice toys down there.”

“Naegi-kun stood up for you…” Sakura pointed out reasonably.

Mukuro’s bloodshot eyes glared at the fighter.

“ **Don’t**.” She coldly snapped.

But Sakura pressed on.

“He still wishes to hear you out. Go to him. Go to all of them.” Sakura gestured at the data processing room door. “The Mastermind… has clearly abandoned…”

“ **I said don’t**!” Mukuro screeched, yet not budging from her position on the floor. She breathed raggedly as she glared daggers at Oogami. “You don’t… understand **anything** …! You’re an outsider! A freelancer…! A **freakjob**! She’ll **crucify** you when she’s done with you!”

Sakura refused to take the insults personally. She could have used the opportunity to probe more about the Mastermind, since Mukuro confirmed their gender, but the soldier was the priority. The fighter took a deep, calming breath.

“And what about you, Ikusaba…? Have they contacted you since exposing you in front of everyone? Have you received any more orders?”

Mukuro’s breath hitched at this new line of questioning. She panted and clawed at the floor instinctually. She gnashed her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut tight.

“Th-Th-That… That doesn’t matter…! I-I’m… Sh-She operates on **her** schedule!” Mukuro insisted frantically, wildly shaking her head. “I-I-I’ll wait a m-month if it means hearing from her…! **I’m not abandoning her again**! **Never again**!”

Sakura knelt down before sitting cross-legged next to the soldier. She kept her composure and leaned against the wall.

“I see, so you know them…” The fighter uttered quietly.

Mukuro’s hysteria died down again and she looked up at the ceiling with a dead expression.

“She’s all I have left…” Mukuro croaked, her puffy eyes glazing over. “Ever since I got that second chance after abandoning her… I swore to do **everything** in my power to be useful to her! I-I’ve done… countless terrible things… I’ve burned bridges with the **world** , just to stay useful to her… A-And now… now…!”

Mukuro sobbed. Those tears she thought she’d long ago exhausted, sprang anew. Her eyes ached even more.

Sakura hummed thoughtfully, crossing her arms.

“Naturally, I cannot say that I know what your life has been like. But if you say this person is the sole thing you have left… I will believe you that is no exaggeration. Soldiers… have seen many terrible things. They even commit terrible atrocities when under orders. But Ikusaba… I can tell you right now, there are good people here, trapped against their will. Friends that you can rely on, **without question**. I promise, if you cooperate and help them… They will never abandon you. Naegi-kun, Maizono, Fujisaki, Oowada, Kirigiri… They are perhaps some of the most talented and genuine people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. It may take time, but they will accept you… no matter how many terrible things you have committed…”

“I told you… **don’t** …” Mukuro growled lowly. Sakura quirked an eyebrow curiously.

“You **have** said that, yes… But just what do you mean?” The fighter inquired.

Mukuro took a shuddering breath. The bright, cheerful face of the Ultimate Lucky Student of Class 78 flashed in her mind, against her will.

“… Don’t give me **hope** …” Mukuro breathed raggedly. “W-We in Ultimate Despair don’t… need it…”

“Ultimate Despair?” Sakura’s brows knit together in confusion. Mukuro barked a hollow laugh.

“You really are an outsider… I-I’m glad…” Mukuro trembled before recomposing herself. “U-Ultimate Despair… ended the world… There’s nowhere to escape to, out there! We won! I-I just… need to do my part… in shredding the last bit of hope the world has…”

Mukuro’s breath lost control as she chanted such thoughts to herself. She couldn’t help reflecting that if this abysmal state she was in, if this was Despair… she just couldn’t comprehend **why** Junko was crazy about it. This slimy, inky darkness pervading her body and soul right now… Why in the world would she ever want to feel this regularly?

Why did Junko…?

Mukuro’s morbid thoughts were cut off as Sakura took her hand firmly. The soldier’s brow creased in concern.

“Wh-What are you doing…?”

“You are in excruciating pain.” Sakura intoned calmly, bowing her head. “I still cannot claim to understand you… But I will say this: No one deserves to be saddled with such misery. This is why… I wish to help you, Ikusaba. Please. If not me, allow the others to help you. You need not endure this darkness by yourself.”

Mukuro felt increasingly frantic at this line of discussion.

“I-I-I d-don’t see how this is any business of yours…! Th-This is **my** Despair to sort through…!”

“Would you wish these same miserable feelings on Naegi?” Sakura pressed, strengthening her grip on Mukuro’s hand.

Mukuro’s eyes adopted the same, fearful look that she had in the gymnasium.

“Wh… What… What does he have to do with this?!” Mukuro demanded, flustered.

“I am merely asking you if you would want to share this darkness with Naegi,” Sakura repeated herself, arching an eyebrow again. “If Despair is so wonderful, as you claim… surely it would be good for him?”

Mukuro’s body shuddered again as her mind went in all directions.

_‘Despair is **wonderful** …’ _One voice purred in her head, suspiciously sounding like Junko. _‘Naegi-kun would **love it**!’_

_‘N-No he wouldn’t…!’_ A different, fragile voice cracked in her mind. _‘This is awful! Not hearing from Junko for days…! I think I might die if I’m not careful!’_

The first voice in her head didn’t seem to like that.

_‘What are you saying? Slit that bitch Maizono’s throat, and you and Naegi-kun can revel in the Despair together! Junko will love you again if you get away with it! It’s so **simple**!’_

_‘ **N-NO**!’ _The second voice cried out desperately. _‘I-I can’t hurt Naegi-kun like that…! I **won’t**! He would despise me if I did that!’_

The first voice snorted derisively.

_‘So? That’s Despair in itself, ain’t it? If you’re really torn up about him abandoning you, just lobotomize him like you did Yukizome-sensei! Instant boytoy, right there!’_ The voice sounded so gleeful at the thought of it.

Mukuro shuddered as her head continued doing somersaults from the very contrasting thoughts waging war in her mind. Her fearful eyes locked with Sakura.

“I… I…” Mukuro swallowed thickly. Evidently struggling with herself, the pleading, desperate words tasted like sandpaper on her tongue. “H… Help me…”

If even she herself was a threat to Naegi-kun now… she needed help. This isolation from Junko… it was stirring up some pretty nasty thoughts and feelings. And maybe that was Junko’s intention, to keep her loyal to the cause, but Mukuro... She didn’t want this, if it meant doing something she’d regret.

And hurting Naegi… Drowning him in Despair… that was never part of the plan. **Mukuro didn’t want it**.

And yet… she still couldn’t abandon Junko.

She was trapped, trying to pull herself out of an abyss… Like trying to ascend a chimney from the inside, pushing against two walls to stabilize herself. Except the walls were moving in to crush her, and the way out was too distant to make it by herself…

Mukuro **needed** help…

“I promised you I would help…” Sakura smiled reassuringly, making the soldier shudder again. “That **they** would help. Trust in them, Ikusaba, and they will not let you down. I promise.”

Mukuro wanted to say those words were reassuring… That she could believe in them…

~~But she felt like she just ingested the foulest, deadliest poison known to man…~~

~*~

Sometime later that day, Makoto sat in the dressing room with Kyoko and Chihiro. They wanted to bring the programmer into the loop about the possible way Alter Ego could give them more information. And while they did want to bring the others into this, Kyoko believed too many cooks in the kitchen would be… bad. It’d be more beneficial for them if the others were off doing their own things if/when the plan was executed. Monokuma would be less suspicious if everyone wasn’t marching in step, and they might just buy themselves a little more time before the bear inevitably discovered the leak in security.

“I’m sure Naegi told you already…” Kirigiri ran a hand through her hair calmly. “About the secret room in the boys’ bathroom on the second floor of the school.”

Fujisaki nodded.

“Y-Yeah! It has no cameras in there…” Fujisaki adopted a troubled expression. “B-But Monokuma took everything from that room, so…”

“Not everything.” Kirigiri shook her head slowly. “Just the files from the shelves. I’m not sure if he just overlooked it, but he left a cable cord that can plug into the outlet in that room… And if we connect Alter Ego to that…”

The mysterious girl trailed off leadingly, and Fujisaki’s eyes widened in awe.

“Then we might be able to access the school’s network…! And without cameras to watch that room, Monokuma might not discover us until it’s too late! Amazing!”

Makoto frowned and rubbed his chin.

“Well, it’s not a perfect plan...”

Fujisaki’s brow furrowed as he looked to the luckster. Kirigiri elaborated.

“The Mastermind’s probably watching the network like a hawk. He **did** make sure to take away our phones and access to computers… Information is power. But more than that, the network is our only way to communicate with the outside world.”

Fujisaki lowered his head, appearing troubled the more he thought about it.

“And if he finds out about Alter Ego… he might…” The programmer trailed off, unable to stomach the thought of the Mastermind deleting his beloved program.

An uncomfortable silence fell over them. It was only a possibility, but even so – Fujisaki was glad they consulted with him. He knew computers the best out of everyone here, the ins and outs, and everything in-between… They were right to be nervous about the Mastermind monitoring the network; that didn’t even get into the type of security and firewalls that might be in place to hinder them…

“Milord!” Alter Ego chirped from his spot on the bench, gathering their attention. “What’s their idea? Is there some way I can help?”

Fujisaki nervously chewed his lower lip before reluctantly typing out his response. He explained the idea… the drawbacks… his own reservations about this. And Alter Ego listened to it all.

“Milord, I understand… You’re worried about me, and… and I’m glad you care!” Alter Ego beamed at the programmer. “But… Kirigiri said my job was done, right? For it to just end there, without me able to do anything else… that’s not good enough for me! I want to help you guys, somehow! Anything I can do to bring everyone closer to a way out of here, I want to do it! I want to help… I want to uncover the academy’s mysteries… and the only way I can do that is by connecting to the school’s network!”

Fujisaki teared up at the earnest pleas. He understood… all too well… He felt the same burning desire to help, after all!

… But even so… This **was** a suicide mission. He might have to rebuild Alter Ego from scratch, if they ever got out. And if they failed… if Alter Ego just died for nothing… Fujisaki knew he wouldn’t be able to take that. This was his one opportunity to come through for everybody… and he couldn’t stomach the overwhelming fear of failure.

“I know it’s risky… but I **have** to do it!” Alter Ego pressed on. “I’m scared, but I’ll… I’ll be okay… It’s kinda weird… When I remember I’m doing this for your sake, it gives me a burst of courage! I’m sure you’re thinking, ‘What’s he talking about, he’s just an AI!’ But it’s true, honest! I’ll be okay. I’m doing this for all of you, so I’m not afraid of anything!”

The three humans found themselves entranced by the sheer courage and bravery that oozed from the AI’s frail, transient voice. It went to show that Fujisaki had created something really spectacular. The programmer in question teared up, as this was the very courage that he himself wanted to be capable of…

And if Alter Ego was so earnest about this, how could he say no? He… He would take the same leap of faith! No matter what happened, Fujisaki resolved to remain strong.

“Hey, Naegi…” Kirigiri addressed the luckster, startling him. “Remember when you asked about the difference between humans and computer programs?”

“Y-Yeah…?” The luckster nodded slowly. Kirigiri crossed her arms, looking to the side thoughtfully.

“The more time I spend with Alter Ego, the more that line seems to blur… That’s… no longer a question I know how to answer… Fujisaki, can you tell the difference?”

Fujisaki shook his head, smiling sadly.

“N-No… No, I can’t.” The programmer sniffed. Kirigiri nodded sagely.

“There is one thing I can say, though. Alter Ego is, without a doubt, our **friend**. To be honest, I don’t want to put him in any more danger, either… The Mastermind will probably catch on if we push our luck any further… Still… let’s lend him our aid. Let’s connect him to the school network.”

“B-But…!” Makoto seemed to be the only one left hesitating.

“As a friend, I want to consider his feelings… his drive to fight alongside us…” Kirigiri said with passion. “Think about it this way—if you were in his position, would you like to sit around, twiddling your thumbs? While everyone else was fighting for their lives… could you just sit back and watch from the sidelines? Would you be proud of yourself for doing so? Could you puff out your chest and say, from the bottom of your heart, that we were in this together?”

Makoto looked down, somewhat ashamed. Alter Ego noticed.

“Are you guys arguing? You don’t need to worry about me… I want… to believe in myself. I want… to believe I can do this. So please, let me try!”

The luckster nodded slowly, making up his mind.

“Will you guys… let me carry Alter Ego?” At Kirigiri and Fujisaki’s stunned glances, he elaborated. “If Fujisaki goes in that room, the Mastermind will **definitely** be onto us… With me, who’s already been in there, I’ll draw less suspicion. And I’ll hide him in my uniform – Kirigiri couldn’t carry him in **her** clothes, so…”

Kirigiri closed her eyes and nodded in acceptance.

“I would appreciate that, thanks…”

Fujisaki nodded nervously.

“O-Okay… I just know you’ll help him, Naegi! We’re in this together!” Nodding confidently, Fujisaki typed out one last message to Alter Ego, promising they’d escape together and that they were all friends.

“We’re… friends?” Alter Ego beamed at them all. “Thank you so much, you guys! I promise, once I’m connected I’ll call for help and dig up everything I can find! Just leave it to me!”

It was with that determined spirit they set out – or, well, Naegi did with the laptop hiding under his shirt. Kirigiri chose to stay behind on the first floor, but split up from Fujisaki to make Naegi’s trip look more natural. They had high hopes for this.

Even if this was risky… this **had** to work…

~*~

“Are you alright, Oowada-kun?”

Mondo blinked slowly as he registered the person he almost bumped into. He shook his head to clear the last of the haze clinging to it.

“Honestly? No. I’m pretty shitty.” The biker rubbed the back of his neck and looked down awkwardly. It wasn’t often that he and Maizono got to talk. She was a decent chick, and he definitely didn’t have anything against her…

Talking to girls just wasn’t his forte, so he never sought them out that much.

“I don’t blame you…” Sayaka smiled wryly, staring up at the ceiling thoughtfully. “So much has happened, and it doesn’t seem to be getting better… We’re falling apart, just like Monokuma wants.”

Mondo scowled as he stared at the floor.

“You get why I’m pissed at him, right? He just… talks so much shit, it’s hard not to want to break his face!”

Togami. Sayaka took a calming breath and slowly nodded sympathetically. If anyone could relate to Oowada in regards to the Togami heir, it was her. She was just as frustrated as the biker… The heir showed complete disregard for everyone, but it was especially that mean spirit he had toward people like Makoto, Sakura, and Aoi… The people least deserving of such cruelty.

“I do…” Sayaka mumbled, now looking down as well. “Oogami doesn’t deserve to be treated like that. None of us do…”

Mondo clenched his fist in frustration.

“I’m **this** close to wringing his neck for good… But… I can’t do that to Fujisaki. Or you and Naegi.” The biker scowled as he dropped his fist and released the tension. “You guys deserve better than that. I’m… I’m really trying hard to reel myself in. I promised bro I’d watch over you guys, and that’s what I’m gonna do!”

Sayaka smiled fondly at the biker’s passion. He really had changed since the first day, after knocking Makoto out in a fit of rage. She was glad that she stayed open-minded about Oowada; he wasn’t just some thug running a biker gang.

“That’s some dedication…” The idol praised. “I see why Makoto thinks highly of you! We think the same way you do. It’s better to have each other’s backs than to be paranoid someone’s out to get you… I’m glad Fujisaki has someone as wonderful as you looking out for him!”

Mondo’s face heated up as the idol beamed at him. He couldn’t bring his eyes to meet hers.

“Y-Yeah, well… Someone’s gotta!” The biker huffed in embarrassment. “S’not like I need to watch out for Naegi as much when you’re taking such great care of him! You just let me know if he starts slacking off with you… I’ll set him straight…”

Sayaka giggled at how flustered Mondo got. She then smiled fondly as she considered Mondo’s words. The idol was… giddy someone mentioned how well she and Makoto clicked. It meant that she wasn’t being too optimistic about her chances.

Not that Makoto was obligated to return her feelings… She was just glad they got along so well, and valued each other’s feelings…

… But it would be nice if romance could come from this. Sayaka would be lying to herself if she didn’t admit that much. The heart wants what the heart wants…

~*~

Mukuro took deep, shuddering breaths. She felt clammy, and like she would overheat if she was made to wait much longer. She wasn’t even in the sauna – just outside of it, in the dressing room.

But this was to be expected. Even though she had reluctantly agreed to this much, she still felt dirty… Like she was breaking her oath of loyalty to Junko. The guilt and anxiety was eating away at her, but even this was still somehow better than the dingy, suffocating darkness that choked her while waiting to hear from Junko.

Monokuma still hadn’t answered her summons…

_‘This is Naegi-kun… **Just** Naegi-kun…’ _Mukuro tried to reassure herself. She made Sakura promise her that much, when she left to fetch him.

She… was in no shape to be facing the others. Not now. But Naegi-kun… Sweet, kind, accepting Naegi… She… Mukuro kept telling herself that she could do this. She repeated it like a mantra.

_‘Yeah… **sure**.’ _The other voice snootily spoke up in her mind. _‘ **Just** Naegi-kun… You ever stop to think that **maybe** this was the reason Junko threw you to the wolves? You’re too attached, maggot. You’re compromised. Damaged goods.’_

Mukuro clenched her eyes shut painfully and shook her head vigorously.

_‘N-No! That’s not true! I-I’m not… I just want…’_

“Ikusaba…?”

Mukuro’s eyes snapped open and she stared at the luckster’s sudden appearance in both shock and horror. Her heart sped up to uncomfortable levels… She could feel her whole body getting hotter and weirder from this sudden meeting… **that she was not ready for** …!

The brunet just stood there in the entrance to the changing room, eyebrows knitted together in concern and confusion. Mukuro tried to take deep, calming breaths to bring her body back under control.

“N-N-Naegi-kun…!” The soldier choked out, her mind fried and tongue-tied.

**She wasn’t ready for this**!

Makoto carefully stepped further into the dressing room so as not to spook her further. He kept eye contact with her and kept a comforting tone as he talked.

“Oogami said someone wanted to see me… I… didn’t think it would be you.”

Mukuro flinched and drew herself back while still remaining seated. Naegi’s honesty… hurt… And she was really scared of what he’d say next… And god… **why had she agreed to this**?! **She was not ready**!

Makoto took a seat at a nearby bench, making sure to give the soldier some distance so she wouldn’t feel cornered. He looked at her… and **smiled** …!

Mukuro’s nose scrunched up and brow creased in confusion at the sight. Why…?

“Wh-Why are you smiling…?” Mukuro asked, fragilely. Her eyes watched him warily.

Sakura encouraged her to wash up, and the soldier was grateful for that much… She hoped her eyes weren’t as bloodshot as they were this morning; she didn’t want to scare Makoto away. Not now.

“I was worried about you. I’m just glad you’re okay…” The luckster answered, brow creasing in concern when he perceived she didn’t quite believe him. “It’s true! I-I know what Monokuma said… I know you probably haven’t… been completely truthful with us…”

Makoto tried to stay as earnest and heartfelt as he could muster. He really believed, even as Mukuro cowered here, she deserved nothing short of the truth of what he felt.

“But even so…” The brunet pressed on, his face reflecting his determination. “I want to believe in the person I’ve been friends with up until now! I can’t just believe… that all of it was a lie! You’re not… You haven’t made us your enemies! You’re scared, and even though I don’t understand why, I… I want to listen and understand. Please! Don’t tune us out!”

Mukuro shivered and clutched the bench tighter. She swallowed thickly and just… stared in shock and disbelief.

Oogami was right. Makoto **did** want to hear her out. He wasn’t… rejecting her.

**He wasn’t rejecting her**.

Mukuro squeezed her eyes shut tight and tried to keep her breathing level.

Makoto… was always like this. She should have known this by now. Two years as his classmate, and she should have known this better than anyone, except maybe Maizono who was always the closest to him. Makoto was the sort… that it didn’t matter how badly you wronged him. Togami and Kirigiri walked all over him. Mondo, Kuwata, Yamada, and Celes always wrung **favors** out of him and gave nothing in return. Ishimaru practically made him his unofficial future Vice President of the Student Council, unloading all sorts of unnecessary tasks on him… Even Junko took advantage of his kindness when she was too lazy to run an errand for their Sensei.

Worst of all… Hagakure tried screwing Naegi-kun over by attempting to harvest and sell his organs and identity just to pay off that stupid debt of his… If Mukuro hadn’t been there that day, Makoto would have been lying in a ditch because of those yakuza bastards. She still hadn’t forgiven Hagakure for his cowardice and selfishness… It was a very good thing he wound up being the first one executed. Mukuro would have done him in herself, had he lived much longer.

Of course Makoto was this accepting and accommodating. He even befriended that psychotic serial killer, in a strange sense…

But that was the problem. Makoto was this considerate **now** , when he wasn’t aware of the full extent of her betrayal. As big as Makoto’s heart was… could she **really** open up to him about **everything**? Would he still be as understanding when he heard every last detail?

“Naegi-kun… I…” The soldier flinched again at his unwavering stare. She still couldn’t do this… “I-I… I can’t tell you everything j-just yet… I need… I need to prepare myself for so much of it.”

Mukuro opened her eyes and stared back at the luckster with a vulnerability that came natural when she was around him. Of course she bore it all for Junko, too, but there was a difference between her sister and Makoto…

Makoto didn’t pick at and attack it like a weakness. He… respected it. And it stirred up such strange and bizarre feelings within her…

“But… I… I **do** want to tell you… Wh-When I’m ready.” Mukuro declared, feeling just a little more sure of herself when the warmth in his gaze did not fade.

“Well, there’s no cameras here.” Makoto helpfully offered up. “If this is about Monokuma or the others finding out… I promise I won’t tell anyone until you’re ready to tell them.”

Mukuro shuddered again. That warmth and sincerity… She knew she could trust him. She knew… he believed every word he said. Makoto kept his promises.

_‘… But I still can’t tell you…’_ Mukuro morosely thought to herself.

Even now, she was still frightened by his possible rejection. She shouldn’t be. She **did** trust him… He was the only other person she trusted, besides Junko. Makoto had a big, kind heart.

A heart that she just knew she would shatter if she told him **everything** … Makoto could forgive many things. But helping trap him here, where so many of his friends died… where his friends turned on each other…

No one… was **that** forgiving. No one **should** be…

And besides… If she did take that leap of faith… That would burn her bridges with Junko.

**And she can’t do that**.

“Just tell me what you can!” Makoto reassured the soldier, who remained fearfully silent. “Tell me about yourself, if it helps. You don’t… have to talk about the Mastermind or why you’re with them, if that’s too much. It’d be a shame to waste this time together, y’know? You already know me pretty well. I wanna hear about you.”

Mukuro cracked a broken smile. She took another deep, shuddering breath.

“Alright… Wh-What do you want to know…?”

Makoto rubbed his chin.

“Well… What does being the ‘Ultimate Soldier’ entail? How’d Hope’s Peak scout you?”

Mukuro felt herself loosening up as they revisited this topic from their first year. It was surreal, explaining it all to him again… But this was her and Junko’s fault for wiping his memories. He even asked roughly the same questions, showed the same shock and awe at her feats…

Mukuro’s body shivered again. She felt like she was overheating, but… it… it wasn’t entirely unpleasant.

Just for now… in this moment of bonding with Naegi, Mukuro felt she could believe his and Oogami’s words that everything was going to be okay. That they would accept her, no matter what.

… But she should have known that this palpable relief wasn’t going to last. The peace lasted completely throughout her animated talk with Naegi, and even when they went their separate ways for the evening… even when she went to bed that night… She felt more at peace than she had in days.

She should have known this was precisely when Monokuma was going to pounce...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed the respite. :3 This was basically the eye of the storm. The last golden opportunity to squeeze in warm and fuzzies before pain, pain, PAIN. XD
> 
> Junko: *whispering in y'all's ears* Whip...lash.... >:3
> 
> Next time:
> 
> "You think I'm going to hurt you...? Why? *I'm* not the bad one here, no, no, no..."
> 
> "Sometimes you gotta be cruel to be kind~..."


	19. Chapter 4, Part 5: All All Apologies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because this next week is going to get only one update (the investigation), I felt like unloading this chapter now. :3

“ **SHIT**!!!!!”

The silver-haired woman’s brow creased as the voice crackled over the radio. The voices of their comrades were quick to join the normally exuberant man. Curses, swears, howls, grievous sobbing... It didn’t take a scientist to know what was unsettling them all. She was watching the same broadcast, after all. A few tears manage to escape her own eyes at the image captured on footage. A gruesome one that would have most looking away or changing the channel – but one that held significance to all of them.

Because it made them **remember** …

“Despicable… She really is a cold-hearted bitch…” The woman murmured softly, hugging herself distressfully. Horrible flashbacks replayed in her mind – memories that she didn’t want. She wished she could erase them… or at least take away the pain they inevitably revived… “ **She** did that on purpose… All those weapons, this murder was meant for us to see. No one else. Why do we worship **her**?”

“ **Bite your tongue**!” The heir to the yakuza snapped from his chair, keeping his eyes focused on the screen. “Enoshima-san is a **genius**! An artist that knows Despair better than you, worthless **bitch**! If she figured we needed the reminder, then we fucking needed the reminder…!”

The silver-haired woman looked to the yakuza in concern. His voice oozed authority and demanded respect, but she knew him. Better than anyone.

“Young Master…”

“I’m **fine**!” The man barked, again not even sparing her a glance.

Both of them froze as one particular voice came over the radio. He hadn’t spoken for the entire broadcast, yet this seemed to stir his interest…

“Ahh… And here I thought I was doing a good job of remembering… of keeping a clear mind, and doing what needed to be done…” The voice cracked as he gave a raspy laugh. He wheezed, his breath clearly unsteady. “Enoshima-san knew I’d been slacking… Why didn’t I believe she’d be keeping tabs on trash like me, even while she was busy with her mission… I’m so **ashamed** of myself…!”

The yakuza growled lowly, wiping at his eye like he had something in it, annoying him.

“Will someone **shut him up**?!” The yakuza barked. But it was too late, the damage was already done.

“We **all** should have known better…!” The voice laughed, unhinged. “Pekoyama-san was right, this murder is **worthless** to them! Nothing but a mere stepping stone! But us…? We lost **everything** , that day…!”

The silver-haired woman, Pekoyama, clenched her eyes shut and turned to the side stubbornly. She hadn’t meant to get so emotional, really…

The Young Master’s breathing becoming erratic did not slip her by. She looked to him sharply in concern, but he remained seated as he had been, eyes locked on the television. Yet another voice crackled over the radio, one that radiated just as much power as her vicious Young Master.

“Komaeda-kun, **please**.” The prim, proper woman sounded polite, but there was an edge of steel to her tone. “We already know. You do not need to…”

“I said it was unforgivable, didn’t I…?” Komaeda sneered, cutting off the Queen of Novoselic. “Enoshima-san broke our chains, releasing us into Despair… Defend her all you like, praise her like a goddess, but **none** of you… **none of you** … have forgiven her… She lives and breathes merely because **Despair** dictates it so! If any of you were **truly** strong, you would have snapped her neck **ages** ago…!”

The yakuza snarled and hurled the radio at the wall, obliterating the device. Peko stood rigidly at attention. The heir’s arm rested on the arm of the chair, curling his fist so tightly it popped.

“… Well, don’t just stand there! Go get another one, you worthless bitch!” The yakuza barked. Peko clicked her heels rigidly and snapped a bow out as she scurried to comply. The yakuza’s temper was legendary, so they’d arranged for a stockpile of replacements before the broadcast.

Nevertheless… she didn’t miss it. The hot tears that had been spilling down his face. The tears he tried to keep from her, because servants didn’t deserve dignity and respect, to know what their Masters felt… Because Despair decreed it…

But she’d seen them. It was impossible for her not to have. Because her Despair was to watch… and do nothing. Such powerlessness… was truly unforgivable…

~*~

“Maizono…?” Makoto rubbed his eyes sleepily as he emerged from the bathroom, not seeing the idol over by the bed anymore. It didn’t take long to find her, over by the door that led to the hall. She seemed distracted, not facing him. He approached her in concern, placing a hand on her shoulder softly. “Maizono?”

The idol jumped from the contact. The paper she was holding in her hand trembled from the jerky sudden movement.

“Makoto?!” She placed a hand over her heart as if to calm it. She glanced at him apologetically. “O-Oh… I’m sorry, Makoto… I didn’t think you’d be done so soon…”

The luckster frowned as his brow furrowed.

“Done so soon…? I was in there for over five minutes… Sorry I kept you waiting.”

Sayaka paled as he revealed that. Hastily she hid the paper behind her back.

“O… Oh… I-I see… It’s fine! I didn’t wait long at all!” Sayaka mustered a big smile to reassure him.

But even so… Makoto frowned. He couldn’t contain his curiosity about the paper.

“What’s that note…? Did something come up?”

Sayaka’s face fell as he probed about it. She supposed it was her fault for not doing a better job of keeping an eye on her surroundings. And it’s not like Makoto was actually doing anything wrong… But…

“I’ll… I’ll tell you later, Makoto.” The idol promised. She couldn’t bring herself to meet his eyes. “It was… just a note addressed to me. I… I need time to process it.”

Sayaka winced internally. It wasn’t a total lie… It didn’t actually have an intended recipient. True, it was slid under Makoto’s door… But the contents… seemed more like a public announcement…

One that she was not yet ready to expose Makoto to. He **would** find out, eventually… It wasn’t fair to keep it from him forever. But first she would have to… verify some facts…

“Well, okay…” Makoto accepted the partial truth at face value, which made Sayaka breathe a little easier. Though consequentially it made her feel like a heel for deceiving him… “So? Should we head to breakfast?”

Sayaka chewed her lower lip, but nodded slowly. She moved to leave first, pocketing the note. Makoto moved to follow her, but just as he was about to step foot outside of his room, Monokuma blocked the way.

“Naegi, old chum!” The bear’s voice was light and whimsical as it usually was… but there was an undercurrent of forcefulness, as well… “We need to **talk** … Step into my office!”

Against his will, Monokuma marched the luckster back into his room, slamming the door behind them. He tried objecting, tried snaking his way past, but the bear wasn’t having it.

… Sayaka, caught up in her own thoughts as she was, didn’t even register the luckster wasn’t trailing behind her…

~*~

Mukuro could tell something was very wrong, the moment she entered the cafeteria. It wasn’t the people that were assembled there – though that did set off alarm bells in her head. It wasn’t even the fact Makoto was nowhere to be seen – for all she knew, he was in the kitchen.

It was… the cold glares. The hostility she easily picked up on. Not just from Togami and Celes, but Maizono and Kirigiri as well. Oowada seemed strangely oblivious to the atmosphere; Fujisaki wasn’t. The programmer was shivering and shrinking in his seat, as if wishing he could be anywhere else.

Taking a breath to steady her nerves, Mukuro looked around the room for the luckster that had summoned her… To no avail, of course.

“Hey, guys…” The soldier uneasily addressed them, feeling the temperature of the room drop even more by doing something as simple as talking. “H-Have you seen Naegi-kun…?”

“Why would you need to know where Naegi-kun is…?” Celes’s tone was icy, and her glare packed so much heat. “Do you have designs for him, too?”

Mukuro’s brow furrowed.

“N-No…? Actually, he called me here…” The soldier mumbled, taking out a note from one of her pockets. She’d foregone the clothes she wore as ‘Junko Enoshima’ and was back in her normal blouse and skirt. She was tempted to wear her combat vest for extra protection, but this was Naegi-kun who called her, so she resisted the urge.

Togami placed a finger to his temple in thought, scowling.

“Perhaps I had Naegi pegged wrong… This seems… absurdly cruel. I’m impressed.”

To Mukuro’s further confusion, Sayaka shook her head, cold eyes never leaving the soldier.

“No, Makoto doesn’t know yet… It had to be someone else. Monokuma, probably.”

Mukuro’s eyes narrowed at the accusation. Junko wouldn’t trick her like that... But Celes cut her off before she could say anything.

“Does it matter? Ikusaba has much nerve coming here, regardless.”

“She’s a soldier.” Kirigiri flatly intoned. “She lives for conflict.”

At the soldier’s continued bafflement, Togami crossed his arms, inclining his head arrogantly.

“Did you think no one would find out? You’re an even bigger fool than Naegi! Monokuma cast you away like garbage, though I can’t **blame** him now…”

Mukuro’s fight-or-flight instincts were kicking in again… Mondo scowled and glared coldly at Togami and the rest, but Mukuro didn’t register that at least someone was standing up for her. She was too busy stressing over what they possibly found out to make them so angry…

“You fucker! We don’t even know this chick! Stop bullying her!”

Celes scoffed.

“Are you an imbecile? Surely you received the same note…”

“His pea-sized brain probably forgot it already…” Togami sneered.

That got Mondo to crack his knuckles threateningly, but Sayaka stopped him.

“Oowada-kun…! Here.” The idol produced the note she kept from the luckster. “It’s all right there!”

Mondo blinked owlishly before taking the note and giving it a look over. Before long he was gritting his teeth and glaring up at Mukuro.

“Is this shit for real?! We’re in this mess ‘cause of you?!” Mondo raged furiously, waving the paper in the air emphatically. “Bro **died** because of a piece of shit like you?!”

Mukuro took a step back warily. She had gone deathly pale as the biker partially revealed the note’s contents. Even if she didn’t know everything it said… this was **bad** …

“Not only that, our loved ones are held hostage because of her!” Sayaka growled caustically. She trembled with rage. “My friends… Makoto’s **family** …!”

“Well, at least now I have a target to take my frustrations out on for **humiliating** me…” Celes hissed darkly. Togami sneered at the gambler’s expense.

“Forget that! We finally have a lead that will tell us **exactly** what’s going on in the outside world…” His glare was cold, and his scowl promised pain and suffering. “You **will** talk… On my pride as a Togami, you will confess to **everything** you did… And you will **suffer**.”

Mukuro’s mouth had gone dry, and she had backed up to the point of nearly fleeing the cafeteria. But they weren’t done. Kirigiri finally spoke up, and her voice was as frosty and venomous as everyone else’s.

“She can start by telling us where the Headmaster is… I **will** find him! Even if you run… You **will** tell me where he is…”

The soldier’s pupils dilated. If she was sweating before, it was a million times worse now. Her body trembled in fear.

“H-H-Headmaster…?” The dark-haired girl whispered in horror. Just how much did they know? What **didn’t** they know? What…?

“Ikusaba…?”

Mukuro froze in place at the voice behind her. Frantically, she whirled around to face him. Unlike everyone else in the room, Makoto **wasn’t** exuding hostility, resentment, or fear… The luckster didn’t even sound disappointed.

He was… perplexed. She could see that in his posture and face.

“Naegi-kun…” The soldier whispered. For a moment, her mind took solace in his seeming blissful ignorance. He… He didn’t **know** like the others apparently did… And that meant…

“Makoto, get away from her!” Sayaka warned the luckster. She screamed at Mukuro in a frenzy. “Don’t you touch him…!”

And just like that, the peace within Mukuro was shattered completely.

It didn’t matter that Makoto was ignorant to her sins. The others were going to fill him in, anyway. And when he found out, he **would** despise her…

Just like the others did.

She didn’t even have the option of running off with him… Where was she going to go? They **would** track her down and take Naegi-kun back… And on top of that, Naegi-kun would ask questions. Questions that she would be unable to answer because **she wasn’t ready** …

There was no way out. Whether she liked it or not, she’d burned her bridge with Makoto permanently… He’d never approach her again.

Sniveling, Mukuro fled the room. She was careful to avoid bumping into the luckster on her way out. He called out to her distressfully, but she didn’t pay him any mind. She just ran and ran and ran… all the way back to her room. The only safe place left in this hellhole.

The soldier collapsed against the door as she locked herself in. She panted raggedly, and then drew her knees to her chest and sobbed and wailed harder than she had in her entire life. There was nothing left for her now. Nothing.

“Hello again~…”

Mukuro sniffled as she raised her head slowly. Disbelief and shock radiating from her eyes. Monokuma was standing **right there** , just a few feet away… Against her will, Mukuro flinched and backed up as far as she could against the door, shielding her face with her arms. Monokuma chuckled… warmly?

“What’s wrong…? You think I’m going to hurt you?” Monokuma tilted his head curiously; Mukuro saw this as she dared to peek through her arms. “Why? **I’m** not the bad one here, no, no, no…”

Mukuro stayed in that petrified pose, not daring to believe a single word spewing from Monokuma’s mouth. Junko always took this tone when she… when she… **reminded** her who was **really** at fault for everything…

Mukuro herself.

The soldier flinched harder. This wasn’t going to end well. Junko was just going to detonate Monokuma, and…

“It’s Naegi-kun…!” Monokuma whispered conspiratorially. “He’s abandoned you… Thrown you away like an unwanted puppy… Or he will, once he knows **everything** …”

Mukuro froze as Junko dropped that bombshell. She lowered her quivering arms and stared at Monokuma, awaiting further elaboration. Her mouth was agape in shock.

The bear turned his back to her, continuing his monologue. Slowly, he began to pace, paws behind his back, then veered off to the side. He traced a lazy line back and forth, alternating the black and white halves of the animatronic bear in Mukuro’s line of vision.

“I didn’t want to throw you to the wolves like that… Really, I didn’t… But, well…” Monokuma chuckled with fake nervousness. “It was the only way for you to get **closure** …”

“Closure…” Mukuro echoed hollowly. Parts of her mind still believed this was Junko’s way of severing their ties – so she assumed the worst when he used a word like ‘closure’. Monokuma nodded sagely, seemingly oblivious to her pessimistic thoughts.

“Oh, yes… You see, I saw you getting a little too close to them, like a moth to a flame…” Monokuma revealed to the soldier’s horror. She **had** been dropping her guard a lot… W-Was… Was Junko mad about that…? Should she have broken character a little and stayed distant to the others? The dark half of the bear’s face was grinning at her, as it always did. “I knew the only way to save you was to educate you… They are **not** your friends. This should make it as clear as day.”

Mukuro’s brow furrowed as she looked down dejectedly. She liked to think they were pretty friendly… They’d been classmates for two years, after all. Even if they were in a Killing Game now… that didn’t erase… what they had… right…?

_‘Of **course** it does!’ _The crueler voice in her head crooned. _‘We stole their memories! They might as well be strangers!’_

Mukuro bit her lower lip, wanting to think about anything but that.

“B-But… You gave them a note that… that…” She trailed off, lost. The first thing she thought of, and she wasn’t sure about that, either. In truth, she still didn’t know what the note said, exactly.

Monokuma reeled back in shock.

“You think that was **me**?!” The bear exclaimed, aghast. “I thought you believed in me more than anyone else…!”

Mukuro’s eyes widened as she launched herself forward in a desperate plea. Her arms reached forward to even graze her fingers on the bear, but like she usually did, Junko made sure to stay just out of reach…

“I-I do…! I **do** trust you, Junko…! More than anyone…!” Mukuro didn’t know how or why that had ever been called into question! She just wanted to… understand…

Monokuma nodded slowly, accepting the groveling.

“Not that I blame you for suspecting me… I **am** the only one who knows about your past, right…?” The bear tilted his head again, curiously.

Mukuro’s brow furrowed as her eyes fell again in shame.

“I… I might have told Oogami and Naegi-kun some things…” Oogami had been an accident, more or less. A moment when she had been drowning in misery, and getting high off of having someone – anyone – to talk to. But she hadn’t revealed anything sensitive to Naegi-kun! Honest!

Monokuma shook his head, disappointed.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk… I told you – they are **not** your friends. If Oogami is willing to go to these lengths to turn everyone against you… She must want you out of the picture.”

Mukuro gasped.

“Oogami wrote those notes…?” Oogami had said that everyone would accept her… Sakura’s real intentions must have been to glean information from her while she was vulnerable, and then use it to her advantage – make Ikusaba seem the more detestable traitor. The alternatives were Naegi-kun and Junko… and how could she doubt them?! Junko was her **sister** , and Naegi-kun… Naegi-kun wasn’t **cruel** like that! He didn’t even know what was going on!

It… It all made sense… Sakura was the one person who could pose a threat to her. Turning that around, the only threat to Sakura… was her.

Mukuro narrowed her eyes coldly. Monokuma nodded his head proudly at her ‘detective work’.

“Surely you can’t let this go unavenged…?” Monokuma asked, an undertone of glee in his voice. “I mean! Even if she did ruin your chances with sweet little Naegi-kun, she’s still a threat to him!”

“A threat…” Mukuro hissed darkly.

Monokuma nodded sagely.

“With you cornered, movements restricted, Oogami’s free to kill who she wants! Don’t forget that just because you’re the prime target, doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a target painted on her back, too! Oogami’s gonna use the confusion to kill someone so she can get back to her stupid dojo! And Naegi-kun’s just the kinda stupid idiot to die by **her** hands!”

Mukuro trembled in hot fury. Her glare became intense.

“I won’t let her…!” Mukuro snarled. After a moment, though, she calmed down and squeezed her eyes shut tightly in frustration as another painful thought came to her. “B-But… if I kill her… Y-You’re just going to… to… execute me, if I’m found guilty at the trial!”

Monokuma just patted her head consolingly. She felt… light… at the bear’s affectionate touch…

“I said all that stuff in the gym for theatrics, my dear! I would never execute **you**. You’re just too useful~…”

Mukuro’s breath hitched.

“I… I’m… useful…” A dazed, relieved smile blossomed on her face. Junko called her **useful**! **She was useful**!!! But then she frowned as yet another thought occurred to her. A sad, dejected, innocent boy… giving her such a wounded stare… “… B-But… if I kill Oogami… Naegi-kun will be… He’ll be so disappointed… And…”

“Jeez, you’re sappy!” Monokuma grumbled, turning his back on her again. “If he can’t get over a traitor’s death when you’ve been so loyal to him… If he lets all that stuff he learns about you turn him against you, he’s not **worth** your time!”

Monokuma ambled over to the bed, plucked up the pillow, and proceeded to shred it with his claws. A flurry of stuffing rained down over Mukuro and her room. The bear kept a light tone as he kept talking.

“This is **your** opportunity to save him! **You** have to teach him that threats need to be exterminated… permanently. If you don’t teach him life’s harshest lessons now, someone else will! And it’ll be **your** fault he got hurt because he trusted someone he shouldn’t have!”

“Sometimes you gotta be cruel to be kind~…” Monokuma’s voice was light, whimsical, and soothing. He leisurely took his leave as the last bit of cotton fell to the floor. Mukuro was left to her thoughts as she contemplated everything she just learned…

_‘Oogami needs to **die** …’ _The cruelest voice in her mind decided with conviction. The softer voice tried to object.

_‘B-But Naegi-kun…!’_

 _‘Oogami tried turning us against **Junko**!’ _The harsher voice berated. _‘And she’s gonna twist Naegi-kun against us! You **saw** the others! They don’t give a shit about us anymore! All we can do… is execute the witch, expose her, and protect Naegi-kun from the shadows!’_

Mukuro wilted at this option.

_‘It shouldn’t have gone this far…’_ The softer voice lamented. She was supposed to stay as Junko until the endgame… Naegi-kun shouldn’t have had to find out this way… A scoff came from the vicious voice.

_‘Yeah, well, we can still fix it! Oogami’s going to pay! If she wants a fight… we’ll give her a **war**! And we are going to **win**!’_

Mukuro grimaced and massaged her forehead, feeling a headache coming on. That black, oozing darkness was back, drowning out her soul and making her body feel numb. Only this time, she felt… She felt **powerful**.

Yes, these circumstances were regrettable… Yes, she was at her lowest. But the visions and phantom sensations of skewering Oogami’s body with swords and spears, maybe even chopping off her head… She could do **anything** she wanted to that traitor. Anything at all. This sense of power felt so **right** …

~~What was happening to her…?~~

~*~

The tension was palpable in the cafeteria, even after Mukuro had long since left. Makoto’s brows knit together in concern as he looked around at everyone.

“Guys…? What happened?” Makoto thought it was a reasonable question to start with. Monokuma had stalled him in the bedroom, never explaining why. He just babbled nonsense like always, and it wasn’t anything he could make heads or tails of. Nothing about Ikusaba had come up.

Togami scoffed from where he was sitting. He sneered at the idol.

“You really did keep him in the dark… I can’t say I understand why. Better that you suffer his childish outbursts than the rest of us.”

Sayaka scowled at the blond.

“I didn’t know she would dare show her face!” The idol defended herself before looking to the luckster with a softer gaze. “Makoto… I’m sorry. I… I really should have told you. Ikusaba… she’s not who we thought she was.”

Makoto’s confusion only deepened.

“Did she say something? I mean, I know she worked for Monokuma, but… For all we know, she’s like Oogami! That’s not a reason to hate her.”

“She didn’t just work ‘for’ Monokuma.” Celes revealed, hands on her hips. “She’s essentially ‘the Mastermind’ that we’ve been fighting against… Or one of them, at least. We never did consider the possibility that there was more than one.”

Togami raised a finger to his temple thoughtfully.

“A rogue member of Fenrir… I’m ashamed I never considered one of them could be involved in this. They’re very good killing machines. It makes sense that she would wait until late in the game before making a move herself… She might even kill the last man standing if we allow her to live.”

Makoto recalled hearing about Fenrir from Mukuro. He could believe that the soldier herself shared that with them, if that is what happened… But that part about her being one of the Masterminds? Where had that come from?

And more importantly…

“Allow her to live?!” The luckster recoiled, staring wide-eyed at the heir. Sayaka’s eyes softened and she looked to the side, guilt reflecting in her eyes.

“N-Not now, of course… Just, you know, something to… consider… after we get out of here…” The idol murmured softly.

Byakuya scoffed, arms still crossed.

“Speak for yourself. Even if she’s much harder to kill than you plebeians, if an opportunity presents itself, I say go for it. If you succeed, I’ll be sure to remember you for all of five seconds when I leave this hellhole behind forever.”

“Don’t get started on that victory speech too early, Togami…” Celes warned him dutifully. “I know firsthand, failure can nail you like a damn truck…”

As the gambler growled lowly, clearly still plagued by the trauma she suffered, Togami chuckled darkly.

“I’ll repeat it until you’re all dead, Ludenberg… **I will not die**. Not by your hands, not by Ikusaba’s, not by Oogami’s, and not by the Mastermind’s… Ikusaba is merely a higher priority target because of her Mastermind status and mercenary skills.”

Kirigiri cupped her chin, narrowing her eyes at the table.

“No, Maizono’s right… It’s better to keep her alive and force her to tell us what she knows. She’s the biggest lead to hunting down the Mastermind that controls Monokuma… Once they’re dealt with, then it won’t matter what happens to Ikusaba.”

Mondo snorted.

“Give her to me and my boys… We’ll do that hung, drawn, and quartered shit with our motorcycles…”

“Aren’t you against violence against girls…?” Kirigiri asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Mondo paused as she pointed that out.

“… I’ll leave Ikusaba to you guys, then. Dibs on the bastard controlling Monokuma!”

“What if they’re also a girl…?” Celes asked with slight amusement.

Mondo growled impatiently.

“If there’s any dudes behind this shit, leave ‘em to **me**!”

Makoto had gone deathly pale by this point, as he listened to his friends talk so… animatedly about this. The palpable hatred and malice was one thing, but it was another that he just didn’t understand where they received this information…

“G-Guys…? Did Ikusaba confirm… any of this…?” The luckster felt compelled to ask.

Togami rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“You saw her – she just ran, like she always has ever since being ousted by Monokuma! What more proof could we possibly need?”

Makoto shook his head firmly.

“If you guys were bullying her like this, of course she was going to run!” Makoto cried out, heartbroken over his friends’ cruelty. “You can’t just assume you know the truth based off what Monokuma says! He obviously wants Ikusaba pushed into a corner! Why would you believe him over someone who was our friend?!”

“ **Was** our friend…” Celes agreed coldly. “People lie. So how can we be expected to take Ikusaba at her word if she denies anything that bear spews out? Regardless of her ‘story’, she is still a traitor, and she hasn’t once spoken up for herself. I will take her repeated cowardice as an admission of guilt.”

Sayaka nodded slowly, eyes narrowed.

“She helped kidnap us and destroyed our lives! It’s her fault our friends and family are hostages!”

“Bro’s dead ‘cause of her…” Mondo growled lowly. “I ain’t forgiving her for that!”

Makoto shook his head morosely.

“Being scared doesn’t mean she’s guilty…!” The luckster protested. “I think anyone in her position would be scared if she was betrayed like that! Oogami’s strong, and she was able to confront her fears, but not everyone can! Not on their own! Treating her like an enemy just because she’s frightened and feels powerless and alone… **Of course** she’d run!”

Togami narrowed his eyes dangerously.

“Will you listen to yourself? **We don’t know her**! You’re being childishly naïve about a girl that, willingly or not, trapped you in here and made your friends kill each other! Like **hell** I’m going to listen to her pathetic excuses at this point.”

Sayaka looked down miserably.

“She’s not like Oogami, Makoto… Oogami was approached **after** the game started…! She helped start all this! Why are you defending her?!”

“It **does** seem hypocritical of you to accuse us of believing Monokuma over Ikusaba, but then go and believe her over us…” Kirigiri snapped frostily.

Makoto could feel tears going down his cheeks. He squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head away in frustration.

“That’s not…! I’m not…!” The luckster struggled to explain his reasoning. “I just think… **everyone** deserves to be heard… And even if she did all these things you guys are accusing her of… It’s not… People can **change** …! Everybody deserves a second chance!”

Makoto’s heartfelt declaration was largely met with by doubt and disbelief. Sayaka was still hurt that Makoto was placing so much faith in one of their tormentors. Kyoko was of the same belief as Celes that people lied, and choosing to believe in clear traitors like Ikusaba was nonsensical. Mondo, while rattled because of his own near screw up with Fujisaki, still believed Ikusaba was different because she intentionally helped the Mastermind. Fujisaki, speechless all this time, still felt helpless in this oppressive atmosphere.

The only real major change… was in Celes. The fire in her eyes was snuffed out, and she cradled her arm, looking to the side with a blank mask.

Togami snorted and pointed at Makoto accusingly.

“Aren’t you supposed to be the leader here…? If you’re so hell-bent on us trusting this worthless traitor, give us a good enough reason to! Not that you can. You’re obviously unfit to lead if childish tantrums are all you can offer.”

“I **am** telling you why…!” Makoto insisted heatedly. “You guys just aren’t listening! And who cares about being leader at a time like this?!”

Kirigiri arched an eyebrow inquisitively.

“Then you wouldn’t mind if we voted a new leader…?”

Makoto’s hands balled into fists, looking down sourly.

“I was never good enough for it, anyway… If Kirigiri or Oowada wants it, then fine! I’m… I’ve gotta go find Ikusaba! I’m gonna hear her out!” Turning on his heel, the luckster bolted out of the cafeteria, tears falling to the wayside from the sudden movements.

Togami crossed his arms haughtily.

“The nerve of that brat… As if I wouldn’t take up the reins of leadership myself.”

“Like hell we’d let you do that, asshole!” Mondo yelled at the heir, still rattled from the exchange.

“Optimism is his one redeeming quality, he says…” Kirigiri deadpanned. “More like his most childish one.”

“Makoto…” Sayaka trailed off, tears threatening to spill from her own eyes. Of course she wanted to comfort him… But she was still hurt herself, with his attempted defenses of Ikusaba. She just… couldn’t bring herself to give Ikusaba the benefit of a doubt anymore.

“Why…? Why can’t we get along…?” Fujisaki cried to himself, bowing his head miserably.

Celes closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She knew what she had to do… It was going to take a giant leap of faith, so she summoned the courage she could… and calmly strode out of the cafeteria.

Nobody questioned her actions… which was probably for the best. They likely assumed she was upset… and they wouldn’t have been **wrong** , per se… Just right for the wrong reasons. It was still convenient, not having to field any questions from the others.

She already had her hands full, questioning herself.

~*~

“Naegi…?”

Makoto wiped his eyes with his sleeve and looked up to see the Ultimate Fighter gazing at him with concern. He’d been on the way to check Ikusaba’s room first, but he’d gotten weighed down by sadness and regret. He deeply regretted not being able to convince everyone to give Ikusaba a chance… And he regretted not going after the soldier after she fled.

The luckster got a glimpse of the real Mukuro Ikusaba last night. And she wasn’t anything like the others were claiming. It would help if he could just… have them all talk it out, them and Ikusaba. But that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon…

“O-Oh… Hey, Oogami…” Makoto greeted, trying to be strong. “I-I was just gonna go check on Ikusaba…”

Sakura’s eyes softened at the name.

“… So, last night went well, then?” The fighter asked with a small, relieved smile. Makoto rubbed the back of his neck, and then looked down dejectedly.

“It did… Ikusaba enjoyed herself, and I was glad I could help her relax!” Makoto clenched a fist in frustration. “But… Monokuma must have done something, because everyone ganged up on her! I mean, I can’t say everything Monokuma told them was a lie… I don’t even know **what** he told them… I just know that they’re… they’re mad, and they’re hurt over it. They… lashed out at Ikusaba…”

Sakura bowed her head and clenched her fists, radiating hot fury. She growled lowly.

“Grrrrrrrrrr…!” The fighter hissed. “How… **dare** … they lay a finger on Ikusaba! How dare… they go after Ikusaba and not me! How dare they… **How dare they**!!!!!”

The luckster reeled back at the violent outburst from Oogami as she screamed at the top of her lungs.

“O-Oogami…” Makoto murmured in worry. “I-I… I can’t say for sure, but I don’t think they actually touched her… they just… m-made her cry… and run away…”

The brunet winced as he realized he put his foot in his mouth. That might as well have been as awful as physically abusing her…

“Un…forgivable…” Oogami growled, again radiating dangerous heat around her body. “ **Unforgivable**!!! **I** am the one they should revile… Why… do they not go after me?!”

Makoto couldn’t help answering in a broken voice.

“Th-They…” The luckster chewed his lower lip in concern. “I think Monokuma told them Ikusaba was one of the Masterminds that locked us up in here. In… In their minds, that makes her… worse… than you, Oogami…”

Makoto knew he stepped in it again when Sakura bellowed with such powerful emotion.

“ **Whyyy**?!”

The brunet held his hands up peacefully.

“O-Oogami, I’m as upset about it as you are, but we have to stay calm about this… W-We… We can’t go off and do s-something crazy…”

Sakura shook her head slowly.

“I do not… need to be stopped… I am fine… I will do nothing… except…” The fighter’s eyes flashed with determination. “… **right what has been wronged** …”

Makoto blinked in confusion.

“Right… what has been wronged…?”

“Farewell.” Sakura turned her back to the luckster and took her leave. He cried out after her.

“W-Wait, Oogami…!” The brunet’s urgent cries fell on deaf ears, however. In a matter of moments, Oogami had slipped into her own room at the end of the hall, closing the door behind her. Makoto wilted at being unable to calm her down.

“She really does have some impressive lungs…”

Whipping around in surprise, Makoto was surprised to see Celes standing there, hands on her hips and looking to the side neutrally.

“C… Celes…!” So many questions flitted through his mind. Why was she here? Was she just planning to return to her room? Did she plan to torment Ikusaba some more?

The gambler closed her eyes and sighed patiently. Naegi-kun really was like an open book. and she couldn’t even blame him for his doubts and skepticism. She had been pretty awful to him… and maybe to Ikusaba, as well.

“I’m not here to stop you, Naegi-kun.” The dark-haired girl assured him. She looked down, cradling her arm anxiously. “If nothing else, I… must apologize for my earlier words and actions. It was unbecoming of me.”

Makoto blinked in shock. Celes was… apologizing…?

“S-So… you’ll believe Ikusaba, too?” The luckster asked hopefully.

Celes kept her gaze averted.

“I… will not write her off without hearing her out.” The gambler corrected him. She took a deep, calming breath. “It is only fair. People must be able to change… if I cannot be objective and extend that sentiment to her, then I have no right to waste your time with my own… troubles...”

As Celes trailed off anxiously, Makoto offered a warm, grateful smile in response.

“Celes, you could never waste my time, even if you tried!” He boasted proudly. “… But thanks. I’m… I’m glad you’re willing to give her a chance. Even if I still have to work hard to convince the others, it means the world to me that you have my back!”

Lesser girls would have blushed or gotten flustered at Makoto’s rambling happiness and relief, but not Celes. She kept a tight lid on her emotions as always, and nodded rigidly in acceptance. The gambler prompted the boy to lead the way to Ikusaba’s room.

… And if anyone dared to claim her face looked a little more flushed than usual… she’d kill them.

~*~

“I have a really bad feeling about this…” Makoto muttered, pacing the dressing room floor. Celes reclined in one of the massaging chairs calmly.

“I know the feeling…” The gambler murmured softly. The luckster looked down at the note in his hands again – he’d asked Celes to see where she got that info on Ikusaba, and this is what she gave him.

“I really wish Ikusaba would open up…” The brunet muttered for the umpteenth time, just as worried as he had been the past several times. Celes reclined her head back and stared at the ceiling.

“I did say I was sorry…”

Blinking, Makoto shook his head to quickly placate the gambler.

“N-No! No, no! I-I didn’t mean to accuse you-”

“I know, Naegi-kun… You’re too kind for that…” Celes trailed off, gripping the armrests anxiously.

Makoto frowned in concern at his friend.

“W-Well, don’t beat yourself up over it, okay? You’re doing more than the others are, a-and… Ikusaba will be happy for your support, when she opens up…”

A bitter smile is his response.

“As you say, Naegi-kun…” She patiently replied.

Makoto’s frown deepened, knowing she was still saddled with regrets beyond just Ikusaba… But his eyes turned back to the note, reading through it one more time.

_‘Here’s a helpful bio for your resident merc!_

_While on a family trip in Europe, Mukuro Ikusaba ran away from her family and joined the mercenary group called Fenrir right before entering middle school. A group specializing in direct combat, Fenrir was based in the Middle East, and had quite the fierce reputation. Ikusaba received military training and became proficient in firearms and hand-to-hand combat. No matter how many battles she was caught up in, and despite her young age, Ikusaba received **no** injuries whatsoever in three whole years!_

_Sadly… You can take the bitch out of the battlefield, but you can’t take the battlefield out of the bitch…_

_Not long after returning to her homeland, Ikusaba made connections and helped form the terrorist group known as **Ultimate Despair**! This diabolical bunch issues no demands – their sole purpose is to sow **Despair**! Why, they’re just the kinda crazies to lock kids up in a school, kidnap their families, their friends… make kids kill each other over the stupidest reasons… humiliate the hell out of them… It doesn’t matter how powerful or influential you are! **Ultimate Despair** can bring about the end of the world!_

_… Or have they already…?_

_National Pop Sensations, tough-as-nail biker gangs, Corporate Mega-giants! **Ultimate Despair’s** toppled them all! Don’t believe me? The only way you can find out for sure is grilling that backstabbing bitch in your midst. She’s been against you from the beginning, **and** …! *dramatic pause* She might know where that Headmaster is holed up! No, not **might**! She **does**! **Without a doubt**! _

_So what are you waiting for?! Ikusaba doesn’t give a rat’s ass about all of you! She’d sooner put a bullet in your family’s heads than be friends with you. That line was drawn in the sand from the start, and she was even gonna kill you bastards when the right opportunity struck. Why else do you think she keeps running…? She knows she can’t fool you guys!_

_… And if you don’t take action soon, she might just snap that happy-go-lucky Naegi brat when his back’s turned… Wouldn’t that be just a **Tragedy**?!’_

Makoto clenched the paper firmly and squeezed his eyes shut tight. Now he knew why everyone was upset, and he couldn’t blame them. Monokuma pushed their buttons **hard** , this time… Of course Togami and Kirigiri would want to grill her for information on the Headmaster and the outside world. Celes was upset – and rightfully so – at being humiliated. Oowada was still pissed about Ishimaru’s death… And Maizono…

Makoto shook his head firmly. No. He wouldn’t hold this against them, no matter how much their words had stung. Monokuma wanted their friendship torn apart, and he was playing them like a violin… He needed to find a way to reach out to them. He needed… he needed to talk with Ikusaba, too. The Mastermind was up to something. Something big. And it involved Ikusaba in some way… If someone tried to kill her, and she struck back…

The paper bunched in his hand as he clenched it into a fist.

“Celes… Let’s go try again.” Makoto suggested, turning to face the exit to the dressing room. Celes calmly opened her eyes and stood up to follow.

“I do not see the harm… it **has** been a while, perhaps she’s calmed down…”

Makoto’s brow furrowed in confusion. It was true, he’d lost track of time, talking with Celes and reading the note over and over, trying to dissect it…

“H-How long…?” The luckster mumbled, feeling nervous as she brought that up.

Celes shrugged neutrally.

“I can’t really say… But I’d wager at least an hour… maybe. It certainly hasn’t been five or ten minutes.”

Makoto felt a chill go down his spine.

“… The cafeteria first. There’s a clock there.” The luckster decided, jogging ahead of the gambler. When they reached their destination, the luckster wilted at spying the hands on the clock. “Two and a half hours… Not good…!”

He hadn’t meant for time to get away from him like that, but this was definitely bad. Really, **really** bad… Ikusaba, and everyone else… They’d had a while to stew in their anger and fear. Anything could have happened, and he fervently prayed nothing had…

“ **Ikusaba** …!” Makoto yelled, hurrying to the soldier’s room and ringing her doorbell again in distress. Just like last time, however, there was no response. Not even when he banged on her door with his fist. He tried to calm his breathing, but he wasn’t having much success.

Celes watched him with soft, concerned eyes not too far away. It’d been her fault, too, for allowing time to slip away like that…

“Perhaps we should look for the others…” The gambler advised carefully. She knew Ikusaba was a priority for him, but with the soldier not answering, it was pointless to keep pounding at her door like this.

Makoto dropped the arm that was hammering at Ikusaba’s door and looked down in guilt.

“… You’re right… Maybe… maybe nothing’s happened!” The luckster dared to hope.

But he should have known… prayers don’t mean anything in this place…

“Oh… so this is where you were.” The two turned at the sound of the new voice, finding none other than Kirigiri standing there in the hall, appearing stoic as always.

“Kirigiri…!” Makoto cried out, relieved. Nervously, he asked, “D-Do you know where the others are…?”

The mysterious girl closed her eyes solemnly and took a small, deep breath.

“… I just ran into Fujisaki a little bit ago. He… said we needed to get to the rec room. If it’s what I’m suspecting, I figured it would help if I found at least one more person before joining him.”

“One more person…” Celes narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

“O-One more person…” Makoto stuttered nervously, palms sweaty.

Kirigiri slowly turned her back on them.

“… We should hurry.” And so they did.

~*~

They reached the third floor in record time. Fujisaki was standing there, fretfully wringing his hands.

“Fujisaki…!” Makoto cried out. “Wh-What happened…?”

Fujisaki started to tear up.

“Something’s wrong with her…!” The programmer cried distressfully. “In the rec room!”

The three of them rushed to the rec room door, where they peered into the room through the window. What they saw… chilled Makoto to the bone.

“O-O-Oogami…?” Makoto whispered in dread.

The Ultimate Fighter was sitting on the couch nearest the open and empty locker at the opposite end of the room from the door. She was hunched over, but that wasn’t the most alarming detail… No. The most distressing thing was that she was impaled with numerous swords and spears. Her body was covered thick in blood, gashes, and wounds. Her hands rested in her lap. If it wasn’t for the weapons and injuries, Makoto would have thought she was merely troubled.

**But she wasn’t moving** … And that meant…

_‘P-Please… Please just be unconscious…!’_ Makoto wailed within his mind.

Kirigiri’s gaze snapped to Fujisaki.

“What’s going on? What happened to Oogami?”

Celes rolled her eyes at the second question – it was evident what had **happened** … But still, she kept her silence, waiting for Fujisaki’s answer.

“I-I… Oogami told me to come here!” The programmer sobbed, producing a note from his pocket. As they looked it over, it specified a time and everything… It wasn’t even that long ago, maybe five or ten minutes… “A-And… And when I went in there, sh-she was on th-the floor…! Sh-She s-said… She said she’d j-just need some protein, th-that even though the wounds were s-serious sh-she could make it, so I went to get her some! A-And she took the bottle! She **did**! After she accepted it, sh-she said to go find you guys! Sh-She said she’d be f-fine…”

Fujisaki hung his head in shame and sorrow.

“B-But now the door’s locked…! Wh-What are we going to do?!” The programmer wrung his hands fretfully. “I know I left T-Togami in there, he was unconscious! O-Oogami said he would be f-fine… A-And I was m-more worried about her, s-so…!”

The silence that settled around them was an uneasy, suspicious one. If Togami was in there, and Oogami had been injured… he could have easily locked the door and arranged the crime scene to hide evidence…

Not to mention if he had actually… Makoto shook his head vigorously. No. He wouldn’t doubt anyone, not even Togami, without clear proof.

Kirigiri nodded slowly, with determination.

“First, we need to find a way into the room.”

“It sounds like the door’s locked, so we can’t break in without breaking the rules…” Makoto pointed out nervously. Kirigiri shook her head.

“We’re breaking down the door…”

“B-But I just said…!” Makoto cried out, only to be cut off.

“It’s not locked. The rec room door **doesn’t even have a lock**.” The mysterious girl revealed, which received a nod from the gambler.

“That’s true… Having used it before, I know that better than anyone.” Celes scowled, trying to not get hung up on her past misdeeds.

“Huh…?” The luckster’s brow furrowed. “Then why won’t it…?”

Kirigiri cupped her chin, considering Naegi’s query.

“Something must be pressed up against it from inside the room… Perhaps a chair?”

“A chair?” The brunet repeated in shock.

“Regardless, this door isn’t locked, so the school rules don’t apply.” Kirigiri asserted once more.

Makoto’s eyes widened.

“So we can break down the door without causing any problems?!”

Kirigiri nodded. Celes eyed the window shrewdly.

“The fastest way is going to be breaking the window.”

Fujisaki’s eyes widened as something occurred to him.

“I-I…! I’ll go grab something!” He rushed off to the nearby classrooms. Makoto’s brow furrowed in concern.

“There’s nothing to worry about, right…? This is **Oogami** we’re talking about…!” The luckster muttered. He got no response, not from Celes, and not from Kirigiri.

A moment later, Fujisaki came running back.

“Th-There was a broom in that classroom…! Please…! Hurry…!” The programmer nervously handed the broom to Naegi, who nodded firmly.

“Alright… stand back.” With all his might, the luckster swung the broom down on the window. It shattered inward, and the sound of breaking glass assaulted their ears. He reached inside and felt the chair in front of the door. He tried shoving it experimentally. “This… is one heavy chair…!”

With some grunting, Makoto shoved it away with all his might, freeing the doorknob. Right away, they burst into the room. Makoto had to gag his mouth with his hand, because a foul smell pervaded the room, and looking around with alarm, it was no wonder why. There were more weapons lying around, and copious amounts of blood spilled. Indeed, Togami was lying face-down over by the pool table, and thankfully there wasn’t any injuries or blood on or around him.

Makoto froze as he noticed another glaring detail about this scene. Scrawled on the floor by the magazines, a message was written in blood.

“ **Bloodbath Fever** …” Celes narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Makoto didn’t waste any more time. He rushed over to Oogami’s side… and placed his hand on her to try and feel her pulse…

But when he touched her skin… he felt **death**. Only the tiniest bit of warmth remained… but all the life had been drained from her. If that wasn’t obvious enough from the disastrous rec room and weapons impaling her body… Not a moment later…

“A body has been discovered~! After a certain time has passed, the Class Trial will begin! Hurry on up to the rec room~!” The monitor turned off after Monokuma gave his announcement.

Makoto could only stare morosely at the body of his once great friend…

“Too late… we… we were too late…” The luckster croaked out, crumpling to his knees.

Monokuma got what he wanted. He’d pushed another friend into committing murder… and given the state of the crime scene, Makoto knew exactly who would fall under the greatest suspicion. Who would be the most reviled.

… And it wasn’t going to be Togami, despite where he was found. This scene was too gruesome. If Oogami really died on these swords and spears… there was only one possible suspect. One person who could fight Oogami… and then kill her…

And Makoto hated how his own mind betrayed him, jumping to her immediately, as well. He clenched his fists hard enough to hurt…

_‘Why… Why, Ikusaba…? Oogami and I… believed in you… more than anyone…’_ The luckster squeezed his eyes shut tight, trying to hold back the tears.

He didn’t want to doubt her. He didn’t want to think any of his friends were capable of this amount of violence… But the evidence was right in front of his eyes. And even he had to admit, that aside from Oowada, she was the most physically capable of their remaining classmates. And it was even harder to suspect the biker, when he was friends with Oogami, too…

It was wishful thinking… that Oogami died peacefully…

It was even more idealistic to hope that no one else died, once they reached the truth.

Makoto’s one redeeming quality was his optimism… but even he found it hard to stay hopeful in this depressing, tragic moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *clears throat* 
> 
> ima watashi no negaigoto ga  
> kanau naraba tsubasa ga hoshii  
> kono senaka ni tori no you ni  
> shiroi tsubasa tsukete kudasai
> 
> kono oozora ni tsubasa wo hiroge  
> tonde yukitai yo  
> kanashimi no nai jiyuu na sora e  
> tsubasa hatamekase yukitai
> 
> ima tomi to ka meiyo naraba  
> iranai kedo tsubasa ga hoshii  
> kodomo no toki yumemita koto  
> ima mo onaji yume ni mite iru
> 
> kono oozora ni tsubasa wo hiroge  
> tonde yukitai yo  
> kanashimi no nai jiyuu na sora e  
> tsubasa hatamekase yukitai
> 
> kono oozora ni tsubasa wo hiroge  
> tonde yukitai yo  
> kanashimi no nai jiyuu na sora e  
> tsubasa hatamekase  
> kono oozora ni tsubasa wo hiroge  
> tonde yukitai yo  
> kanashimi no nai jiyuu na sora e  
> tsubasa hatamekase yukitai
> 
> :3 No turning back now~ If you want donuts, prepare for Despair~ Best girl's dead... If even she fell, who is immune to a potential death? Answer: No one. Plot armor ain't gonna fly here. XD
> 
> ... Best girl is dead. I know I have sinned. Strap in, lads. This emotional rollercoaster isn't over yet.


	20. Chapter 4, Part 6: All All Apologies

_Footsteps echoed in the dark chamber. The only source of light was a flickering light directly over the captive’s head – it revealed a dirty, bloodstained floor, and a nearby cart with scalpels and other rusty tools on it. The boy, helpless and bound to a chair, had a bag over his head._

_“M-Maizono…?” He croaked out. A silhouetted figure, clearly a girl with pigtails and wearing a shirt and skirt, pranced over to him._

_“Wakey-wakey~…” The girl, her face overshadowed by the darkness of the room, ripped the bag off the boy’s head, revealing the bruised face underneath. Even his ahoge was crooked. “Maizono’s not coming to save you! It’s been six months now, Naegi-kun~! I think it’s time to face **facts**!”_

_Naegi shivered in fear, keeping his eyes clenched shut and not daring to look up._

_“S-S-S-Screw you…!”_

_This only earned a giggle from the girl as she pranced around casually._

_“That’s the spirit~! Never give up, never give in! Soon you’ll be an international celebrity with that kinda inspiration!” The girl chuckled darkly. “Just like Maizono and that new boytoy of hers…”_

_Naegi couldn’t help it. His eyes snapped open, and he shivered again in dread._

_“N-N-No… she wouldn’t…”_

_“Hmmm… You think? Sooo… This **isn’t** Maizono-chan, then?” The girl shoved a photo in his face as she kneaded his shoulder from behind him. “Huh, weird… The blue hair’s usually a dead giveaway!”_

_Tears sprang from the luckster’s eyes and he looked away in anguish._

_“N-No…!” He whispered in horror. The girl behind him just sighed._

_“I didn’t want to show you that photo, really I didn’t… But… well… It was the only way for you to get **closure** …” The girl’s tone was light, friendly. But it carried a deep undercurrent of cruelty and glee. She walked around, picking a cattle prod off the floor, tapping it on her palm casually. “Now, I **know** it hurts… But you’ve still got me~… And you know what Junko-chan always says~… You gotta be cruel to be kind~!”_

_Deftly, the girl swung the cattle prod into Naegi’s chest, wheeling the chair off into the darkness. Only now could the girl’s face be seen in the dim light… And it was Mukuro. She followed after the tortured boy, **smiling** … _

And then Mukuro woke up in her bed with wide, petrified eyes… and she screamed.

~*~

It didn’t take long for the remaining survivors to show up. Well, the ones expected to show up, anyway. Two sets of feet pounding up the stairs entered everyone’s ears, and soon enough a heavy-breathing Mondo screeched to a halt just outside the open rec room.

“Alright, who the fuck d…” The biker froze as he got a good look at the body. “O-Oogami…?”

Sayaka’s eyes welled up with tears as she peeked over the biker’s shoulder.

“N-No… Why her…? Out of everyone… W-Why…?” The idol whispered in shock.

Almost as if snapped out of a trance, Mondo stiffened, narrowed his eyes, and stomped on over, shoving roughly past Celes and Kirigiri. He came to a stop in front of the body, obscuring their view of it.

“Outta my way, assholes…! There’s no fucking way I’ll believe this shit!” However, when the biker leaned over Oogami’s lap and placed his hand to check for Oogami’s pulse, the body was even colder than when Makoto had touched it moments ago. There was no mistaking it now. “Sh-Shit… S-So… it really **was** her?!”

The biker reeled back in stunned disbelief. Both his hands acting like they’d touched something dangerous with the way they flailed about at his sides. However, that shock was quick to transform into righteous fury once he eyed the many weapons impaling Oogami’s body.

“… Where is she?” The biker’s eyes trailed around the room. When he didn’t receive a response, nor a confirmation that she was inside the room with them, he shouted at the top of his lungs. “ **Where’s the bitch that killed bro and Oogami**?! **I don’t give a damn she’s a chick anymore**! **I’ll kill her myself**!”

Several winced at his anger and grief. Fujisaki trembled nearby.

“O-O-Oowada…” The programmer mumbled morosely, tears springing from his eyes.

Kirigiri closed her eyes thoughtfully.

“… That isn’t confirmed yet.” She told the biker calmly, but he wasn’t having any of that.

“Spears don’t jab themselves into people’s damn bodies!” Mondo roared, pointing at Oogami’s body emphatically. “And if ya dare say **I** did this shit, I’ll kick your ass! That goes for all of you!!!”

Kirigiri continued trying to reason with him.

“Oowada, if we get this wrong, you know that all of us will die.” The mysterious girl crossed her arms, glaring at him sternly. “We **have** to investigate.”

“Like **hell** there’s another damn culprit!” Mondo snarled, raising a twitching hand from near his jacket pocket. “There’s no damn mystery this time! Let’s just get the shitty Voting Time over with right now…!”

Makoto’s brow creased in concern, and he called out in a loud voice to gather Mondo’s attention.

“Oowada, you’re scaring Fujisaki…!”

At those words, Mondo stopped in his reckless rage as his eyes panned over to the programmer, who was still crying and sobbing. Instantly, he felt hollow. Numb. He sagged in shame.

“Sh-Shit…” He bowed his head, placing hands on his hips. “I’m… I’m sorry, Fujisaki… I didn’t mean… Shit…”

The biker continued to cuss up a storm as he tried to reel himself in. It was clear that even with this wakeup call, he was still struggling with a rage bubbling up inside of him.

“Why don’t you step out for a bit?” Kirigiri advised.

Mondo took deep breaths as he kept his head bowed.

“… Somebody needs to watch the crime scene, right? I’m… the only one left, so…”

Carefully, Makoto placed a hand on the biker’s shoulder.

“I think… I think we can manage for now, Oowada… Go get some air, okay?” The luckster backed Kirigiri up, squeezing the biker’s shoulder consolingly.

“…” Mondo could muster no further words, but he unsteadily complied, marching back the way he came. Sayaka allowed him to step out and go where he wanted. Then she stepped into the room, and cringed at the mess.

“Wh-What happened…?” The idol asked, a sense of dread plaguing her voice.

No one had an answer for her. Not yet. Monokuma took that time to pop into the room.

“Boy, howdy! You kids exterminated that traitor with extreme prejudice, huh?” He tilted his head as he received unanimous glares from those who were present and conscious. Even Fujisaki was upset at the bear’s disrespectful attitude. “What? Did I say something to **displease** you~?”

Makoto spoke for all of them.

“Just… Just give us the file and go…” The luckster grunted.

Monokuma rubbed the back of his head bashfully.

“Can do~! Gee, you kids are really getting into the spirit! Make sure ya dig **real** deep, okay?! Leave no stone unturned!” With a flourish, the bear produced the Monokuma File 4 and gave one to each of them. Then, with a giggle, he took his leave.

Makoto scowled as he was left with a bad taste in his mouth, yet again. Monokuma always liked to screw with them, but he’d gone too far this time. His grip around the file tightened, but he didn’t move to say anything else. He looked around the room at his friends, concerned about what they might be thinking or feeling.

Celes took a slow, deep breath.

“Well, before anything else, I suppose we’ve put it off long enough.” She received questioning glances from Sayaka and Chihiro, but Kyoko nodded and moved to do it herself. Firmly, she shook the Togami heir awake.

Sitting up alert, Togami stared at them all with wide eyes and mouth agape.

“What…? What the hell’s going on here…?” His eyes landed on the body. Clearly, the sight unfazed him. “… Oh.”

Sayaka narrowed her eyes and growled at the heir’s nonchalance.

“’Oh’?! Is that really all you have to say?!” The idol screeched.

Togami adjusted his glasses on his face and gave a condescending smirk.

“Yep, that’s all I have to say on the matter…” The Togami heir chuckled darkly and crossed his arms. Sarcastically, he quipped, “Who would have thought, the next victim was one of the moles…? I certainly hoped for it. And based off how she died, I’m wagering my other prayer will be answered, as well… Fantastic.”

Celes rolled her eyes.

“If Oowada was still in here, he would have slugged you again…”

Togami’s brow furrowed as he looked to the gambler questioningly.

“… Where **did** that fool run off to…? I would’ve expected him to be here, cursing up a storm.”

“He… needed to step out…” Makoto rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. Togami snorted derisively, but offered no further comment.

Kirigiri cupped her chin and stared at the heir shrewdly.

“Never mind that. Togami, explain what you mean by ‘how she died’. Were you awake when the murder took place?”

Togami snorted again.

“Like hell I was. I was rendered unconscious and dragged here against my will! I’m merely saying that it’s obvious **how** she died… Just look at that pile of filth!” He gestured at the body and the weapons impaling it, scoffing derisively. “Disgusting.”

Kyoko sighed at Byakuya’s continued callousness. Sayaka and Makoto took the greatest offense to that, the former was even tempted to slap the Togami heir for the biting comment. Celes narrowed her eyes as they panned over to a certain section of the room.

“You were unconscious the **whole** time…? Somehow, I highly doubt that.”

Togami arched an eyebrow at the gambler curiously, but she didn’t elaborate. When the room went silent, he looked around at each of the assembled students.

“Well? Isn’t anyone going to graciously fill me in? Even you must concede I deserve this much.”

“We can’t do that yet…” Kirigiri answered him, narrowing her eyes in thought. “You’re a suspect.”

Togami flatly stared at the mysterious girl, unimpressed.

“You can’t be serious… I was **unconscious** …!” He gestured at the body yet again. “Do you **really** think me powerful enough to fight that monster and **kill** her?! You’ve reached a new height of inanity…!”

“Under the right conditions, yes.” Kyoko maintained her sharp glare. “If you’ll recall, Ishimaru killed Asahina with very minimal effort… Who’s to say you didn’t just create this scene after slipping her drugs and killing her?”

Sayaka growled lowly.

“ **Or** he could have just poisoned her… We all know about the chem lab by now!”

Togami cocked an eyebrow at her skeptically.

“Really? Just like that, you’re going to put me higher up on the suspects’ list than that damn merc? **I’m** not a professional killer! **Or** a damn **terrorist**!” He spat acidly.

The room froze again as Togami brought up the elephant in the room. Even now, Ikusaba still hadn’t shown up. Even now… the possibility that she snapped and murdered Oogami loomed over their heads. And Ikusaba still wasn’t regarded well by Maizono, Kirigiri, or Oowada. Fujisaki wilted as he felt the temperature in the room drop, and Naegi clenched his fists in aggravation. Celes kept a carefully blank face.

“Whether it’s Ikusaba or Togami, I don’t care who…” Sayaka bit out, angrily. “I’m going to find whoever killed Oogami! She didn’t deserve this…!”

“Maizono…” The luckster murmured in concern, his heart aching at how pained she sounded. At hearing him speak, Sayaka spared him a glance and chewed her lower lip nervously, unsure of what to say to him.

Kirigiri crossed her arms, looking between the idol and luckster.

“Maizono’s correct. The two likeliest suspects are Ikusaba and Togami… As far as I can tell, no one else had a powerful enough motive to kill Oogami.” She arched an eyebrow at the luckster suspiciously. “Or are you going to suggest differently? Do you still suspect your **friends** more than Ikusaba…?”

Makoto’s shoulders sagged at the bitterness in the lilac-haired girl’s tone. He looked to the side guiltily.

“I… don’t know what to think…” The luckster confessed with great unease. He looked down, troubled. “I think we should keep our minds open, and investigate as thoroughly as we can… You said it yourself, Kirigiri. If we get this wrong, we’re dead. I… I don’t want you guys to die. So please… just for now… can we investigate together?”

Togami snorted derisively as Kirigiri remained thoughtfully silent at the luckster’s plea.

“Speaking as if you yourself are not included amongst our number… Do you really hold so little value for your own life?”

Sayaka’s eyes softened as the luckster clenched his fists and kept his gaze averted.

“’Course I don’t wanna die…” Makoto muttered quietly. “You guys are just more important to me! I fight for **you guys** in these Class Trials, not for myself! That’s why… I care about Ikusaba, too… ‘Cause even if you guys can’t trust her now, I’ve seen what she’s like! I **know** she’s worth believing in! I wish I could make you guys see… But I understand why it’s so hard for you guys. I know… I would be angry, too, if I hadn’t seen for myself… That’s why, I don’t blame you if you go back to hating me after this trial. As long as we make it out of this in one piece… That’ll be enough for me. At least you guys will be alive to hate me.”

The edginess in the atmosphere dissipated as Makoto spoke those heartfelt words. Not even Togami reproached him again. Fujisaki smiled in relief, and even Maizono offered a small, bitter smile as she looked down guiltily – she still felt mixed about Ikusaba, but how could she resent Makoto after everything? She felt terrible about overreacting with Makoto. It was impossible to trust Mukuro yet, but she shouldn’t have taken it so personally that the luckster was defending the soldier. Sticking up for friends is what Makoto did… even when those friends crossed lines they never should have.

That was why it was so hard to give Mukuro the benefit of the doubt. They’d already dealt with more than a few disappointments thus far, like Celes, Kuwata, and even Yamada. The idol wasn’t really eager to repeat that same blind trust, only to have it spat on again, much less by someone who was purported to be one of their tormentors.

… But for Makoto’s sake, Sayaka would investigate thoroughly. She didn’t want everyone to die, either.

Celes released a huff of frustration under her breath as she looked to the side impatiently. It was about time. It felt strange, being ahead of the curve for once. She herself didn’t know what Ikusaba was really like… but it was foolish to allow Monokuma to color their opinions, that much the gambler could admit to. And now it seemed the others finally realized this, as well.

Kirigiri ran a hand through her hair calmly.

“Let’s split up for now… Togami, you should leave the crime scene – we’ll probably have more questions for you, later.”

The heir sneered as he rose to his feet.

“Whether I’ll be in a mood to answer you idiots is another matter entirely, considering you refuse to share information with me yet again… But I digress, I’ll wash my hands of this wretched scene and investigate a few things of my own. Come find me if you’re willing to exchange information, I won’t accept anything less than a fair exchange.” With that, Togami arrogantly exited the room.

Kirigiri turned to the rest of them expectantly.

“What about the rest of you?”

There was silence for a few moments as they all considered what to do. Fujisaki was the first to break the silence.

“I-I… There was something in the chem lab that bothered me, so I-I’m gonna go check it out!” The programmer decided, hands clasped together in front of himself.

Makoto rubbed his chin.

“I think I’ll start here. There’s a lot to go over…” He looked around the room, already feeling overwhelmed just thinking about it.

Celes placed her hands on her hips.

“… Someone needs to track Ikusaba down and question her. I can at least do that much.”

Sayaka chewed her lower lip, looking down shamefully.

“I-I… I’ll stay here, too… Oowada-kun can’t watch over the crime scene in his state, and somebody needs to…”

Kirigiri closed her eyes and nodded in acceptance.

“Alright… Remain vigilant, and let’s find the truth…”

For the fourth time… They had no choice. Sakura would not die in vain – Makoto would make sure of that. He would find out why she had to die… And he **would** find out why Monokuma was doing this to them…

~*~

_‘Guess I’ll start with the Monokuma File, like always…’_ Makoto thought to himself, switching it on. _‘The victim was Sakura Oogami. Time of death: Approximately 10:00 a.m. She was found dead in the recreation room on the third floor of the school zone. The deceased suffered numerous cuts and wounds across her body, and was impaled on two spears, stabbed with three swords, and stabbed with at least two survival knives. An ax was also lodged in her upper back. The spears were impaled through her chest and right shoulder; the swords mainly stabbed through her chest, abdomen, and left arm; and the knives were imbedded in her legs. In addition, the victim shows bruises all across her body, including the back of her head. Copious amounts of blood were lost from these external wounds, but the victim also vomited a considerable volume of blood.’_

Makoto grimaced as he read the file a couple of times just to make sure he got the gist of it. Honestly, it was just as bad as looking at her up close… Sakura had really taken a beating, and he felt awful that she was attacked so brutally.

“This is going to be a tough one…” Kirigiri mused, bringing the luckster out of his thoughts. He quirked an eyebrow at her.

“What makes you say that?”

“The only entrance to the rec room is the door that we came in through… Furthermore, the door was blocked from the inside by a chair, making it unopenable… That begs the question: after sealing the door with the chair, how did the culprit escape from the room?”

Makoto blinked slowly before his eyes widened in astonishment.

“I see…! The only door was sealed from the inside, and entry was impossible until I broke the glass… meaning… there was no way out…”

Kirigiri nodded sagely.

“In short, this was **a sealed room murder** …”

Makoto’s brow crinkled in concern as the mysterious girl brought up that phrase – Sayaka appeared troubled, as well. You saw this kind of mystery happen all the time in manga and on TV, but in real life? Right in front of their eyes?

“A sealed room murder…” The idol repeated in disbelief.

“Would you like to hear more about them?” Kirigiri dutifully asked the duo, who both responded in the affirmative. “Sealed room murders, by and large, can be divided into **four major categories** … Category one: **a sealed room constructed from the outside after the crime has been committed** … After committing the murder, the culprit uses some kind of trick to seal the room… This typically involves them setting the lock from the outside somehow. The possibilities are endless… It could be something primitive like a string and pulley… or something more complex and mechanical…”

Makoto frowned as Kyoko covered this first broad possibility.

_‘Some kind of trick, huh? I’ll have to give the door a good look over later…’_

“Category two: **a sealed room that already existed before the murder occurred** …” Kirigiri continued, crossing her arms and looking off to the side.

“Existed before the murder?” Sayaka asked, tilting her head curiously.

“Basically, the culprit uses some tool or method to target the victim from outside the sealed room… Something like a remote-activated gun or firing arrows through the crack in the door… However, this case probably doesn’t fit into that category. Not only aren’t there any guns or archery equipment in the school, the door doesn’t have that wide a space…”

Makoto nodded slowly in agreement, frowning dubiously.

“Not only that, but anywhere you look, the killer struggled with Oogami in here…” The luckster mused. He then conceded, “At least if Oogami died by these weapons.”

Kirigiri dropped her arms to her sides.

“And then category three: **the culprit is inside the sealed room when the seal is broken** …”

“So they’re hidden inside somewhere?” Makoto asked for clarification.

“They take advantage of the confusion to slip into the crowd, acting like they just showed up… and that’s how they get away with it.” Kirigiri explained.

Sayaka scowled and narrowed her eyes.

“Well, we know Togami was here! And we only have his word that he was ‘unconscious’!”

The luckster frowned thoughtfully.

“It does sound like something he’d do, just to mess with us, but it also leaves him at a disadvantage because only him and Oogami are in the room. As devious as he is, I’m not sure Togami would actually murder Oogami, and then block off his own escape route.”

Kirigiri arched an eyebrow curiously.

“And what if Togami did the former, but not the latter? That’s a possibility, isn’t it?”

Makoto’s brow furrowed in confusion.

“Huh…? What do you mean?” He scratched his cheek nervously at the mysterious girl’s sharp glare. “I-I’m sorry, I’m just not sure who’s left if Togami didn’t seal the room…”

Sayaka looked down contemplatively, having an idea of what Kyoko was driving at. But why would Oogami do that…? A last ditch effort to trap her killer, maybe?

The lilac-haired girl ran a hand through her hair.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll see what I mean soon enough.” Kirigiri mused before proceeding to the last broad possibility. “The fourth and final category: **it was never a sealed room to begin with** … In other words, the room has a secret passage or something in it… some way for the culprit to escape. Mysteries falling into this category show up in novels a lot, but… in reality… it’s highly improbable.”

“Then it’s probably safe to assume we can cross it off the list…” Makoto nodded in agreement. “So, you’re leaning toward the third category, Kirigiri? Or do you have another hunch?”

Kirigiri crossed her arms again, looking off to the side.

“It’s definitely going to be a big point of discussion in the Class Trial… But for right now, it’s hard to say.” She replied simply.

That was fair. They’d barely scratched the surface yet, so there wasn’t a rush to form conclusions yet. Aside from the sealed room mystery itself, there was the big question of how Ikusaba got out, if she was involved at all. There were few places to hide in here, and no one spotted her during the initial discovery, or at least no one announced they saw her.

So aside from looking at what was actually in the rec room, he’d have to keep an eye out for places one could remain hidden in. It’d give him perspective on the crime scene…

The first thing Makoto focused on was Oogami’s body, the chair she was sitting on, and the area around it. To be honest, there wasn’t all that much, save for the globs of blood sprinkled around the chair and floor… not to mention the large stain on the floor behind the chair.

_‘Ouch…’_ The luckster grimaced as he got a better look behind the chair. _‘Did Oogami get attacked while she was sitting here…? I guess that axe could do it, yeah…’_

It was a pretty big axe. You’d have to be pretty strong to swing that around, and even stronger to bury the axe as deep as it was in Oogami’s back. That thing wasn’t coming out without leaving serious scars or ripping out chunks of Oogami’s back…

“Poor Oogami…” Sayaka murmured, eyes downcast as she stared at the body. “You didn’t deserve this. You… You only wanted everyone to talk… to come to a resolution…”

Makoto raised an eyebrow curiously as the idol mumbled that. He turned to her and spoke softly.

“She wanted everyone to talk it out…? H-Hey, Maizono, did Oogami approach you recently?”

Sayaka’s brow furrowed in confusion.

“Y-You didn’t know, Makoto…?”

The luckster shook his head.

“No… Well, I mean, she told me that she was going to ‘ **right what has been wronged** ’, but I figured she was talking about confronting the Mastermind, possibly. D-Did she approach you, though?”

The idol’s brow crinkled further in worry.

“N-Not directly… I think – I think Oogami slid notes under our doors to meet up here in the rec room. At least, that’s what she did with me.” Sayaka explained, dearly wishing she’d brought that note with her. “I-It said she wanted to talk about a matter of grave importance, and that she wanted all of us there…”

Kyoko cupped her chin, narrowing her eyes in thought.

“True, I received a note just like that. I didn’t go… because I had a bad feeling about it. Even if Oogami wrote the note herself, I suspected she wished to talk about Ikusaba. And if all we did was talk about her, without Ikusaba present, I wasn’t interested in hearing her out. It would be Naegi-kun’s pleading all over again… Pointless.”

Makoto frowned as the mysterious girl put it like that. He didn’t think talking it out was pointless at all, but even if he wanted to argue the point, he wouldn’t be able to convince her to change her mind. Not without Ikusaba opening up to them. And even then…

Sayaka nodded slowly in agreement to Kyoko’s words.

“I had a bad feeling about it, too… Though, I wish I went, now.” The idol looked around the room, depressed. “… Maybe Oogami would still be alive…”

Kyoko crossed her arms, looking off to the side again.

“Maybe. Or maybe you would’ve been a second victim… Don’t forget, Monokuma allows for a ‘serial killing’ to take place. And if the killer didn’t need you alive, they would have disposed of you. The brutal violence of this crime is… unsettling.”

Makoto balled his hands into fists and did his best to reel his anger in. They weren’t naming Ikusaba as a sole suspect, and he had to believe they were going to be objective enough until they saw more evidence… Fighting over every little thing was exactly what the Mastermind wanted, and it would only sow more ill will against him if he said anything now. For Ikusaba’s sake, he needed the others to at least have enough good will to cooperate and investigate with him, rather than against. He couldn’t find the truth by himself, by his own power. None of them could. Cooperation was vital now more than ever.

Besides, Kirigiri was right. The level of violence here was unbelievable. It was like a literal battlefield, despite how the room was supposed to be for relaxation and enjoyment… And despite Oogami’s big, open heart.

Makoto frowned and rubbed his chin.

“… Hey, Kirigiri… Do you think…? Do you think Oogami really died by all these weapons?” He gestured at the body, and vaguely around the room.

The mysterious girl somewhat mirrored his pose, albeit looking more pensive as she did so.

“… I don’t know.” She answered honestly, dropping her arms. “I’ll look over the body to be sure, but it may be a fool’s errand. Death from blood loss may be the only possibility. It’s definitely the most likely one.”

Makoto winced, suspecting that might have been her stance on it. Sayaka frowned thoughtfully.

“W-Well… Isn’t it true the Monokuma File also mentioned Oogami vomited blood…? Shouldn’t we look into that, to be safe?”

Kirigiri closed her eyes and sighed calmly.

“Of course… I had every intention of doing that. But you must understand, with wounds like these, it would be all too easy to vomit blood. Don’t get your hopes up.”

Makoto and Sayaka both stood there rigidly, trapped in their own morbid thoughts about all this. But Kirigiri wasn’t done.

“Still…” The lilac-haired girl narrowed her eyes at Oogami’s body. “There **are** a couple of things that bother me. Something’s changed about the state of the body since we came in here.”

Makoto’s brow furrowed in confusion.

“Really? I didn’t notice anything…” The luckster muttered, looking Oogami’s body over again. The mysterious girl crossed her arms.

“I don’t blame you for overlooking it. The weapons skewering Oogami’s body are much more alarming… But I saw it. There was a bottle cradled in Oogami’s lap – her hands obscured it from view, but I saw it.”

“A bottle…?” Sayaka echoed, not really getting it. Makoto didn’t blame her, since she and Mondo were the last ones besides maybe Mukuro to discover the body.

“Now that you mention it…” Makoto muttered. He narrowed his eyes at Oogami’s empty lap. “I **think** I caught a glimpse of something like that, yeah… But what do you think that bottle was…?”

Kirigiri smiled mysteriously.

“Well, if we believe Fujisaki, it would have been a bottle of protein. He brought Oogami some protein at her request, remember? Of course, that’s the only bottle we **know** of… For all we know, it was poison, and the killer made off with it to hide the evidence. Not that it makes sense that they wouldn’t have taken it with them when they killed Oogami…”

Makoto’s frown deepened as he thought over the possibilities. Protein…? Or poison…? Which one was it? Had there even been a bottle there at all?

The luckster shook his head, scowling firmly.

_‘No… If Kirigiri said there was a bottle, there was one. Even if my memory is sketchy, I’m sure Kirigiri’s isn’t. And she wouldn’t… forge evidence. There **was** a bottle here… But where did it go? Who took it? **Why** did they take it?’ _

He wouldn’t get answers by simply standing there, so Makoto carried on. Inspecting the door to the room didn’t reveal any tricks or gimmicks; there was no lock, like Kirigiri and Celes had said. And there was no string or any other suspicious device attached to it. Just a simple door, albeit one with a shattered window that he created…

The chair sitting beside the door was another story.

“H-H-How did I miss that?!” Makoto yelped, hurrying over to the chair to inspect it. Sayaka trailed behind him, and Kyoko remained where she was, watching them.

While it wasn’t a crazy amount of blood by any stretch of the imagination, there were flecks of blood sprayed over the chair. On the seat itself, on the back of it, and on the armrests. In fact, there were bloody hand marks on those armrests, but they were facing the opposite way from how they would look if someone was sitting in it. The right hand mark was on the left armrest, and vice versa.

“D-Did Oogami move this…?” The idol stuttered, eyes wide with disbelief. Makoto could only nod faintly – that’s what it sure seemed like. Kyoko ran a hand through her hair calmly.

“The blood on the chair, as well as the trails of blood on the floor…” As the mysterious girl brought that up, Makoto examined the trails. Whoever left those had definitely been dragging their feet… The trail even led up to Oogami’s body. “Both strongly hint that Oogami created this locked room. However, that isn’t necessarily guaranteed. The blood could easily be a red herring to throw us off the trail… we should keep examining this room to be absolutely sure.”

The luckster and idol both nodded slowly in agreement. Makoto looked the chair over, but didn’t find any hidden mechanisms or strings. The chair seemed to have been moved manually…

“’ **Bloodbath Fever** ’…” Sayaka shivered, wandering over to the bloody message on the floor by the magazine shelf. Makoto took note of how there was a large amount of blood splattered on the floor halfway between the magazine shelf and the chair he’d been giving a once over. It looked too large to be just a part of the trails that led from Oogami’s body to the chair that had barred the door… Had Oogami been lying there at one point? “I-Isn’t that… Genocide Jack’s… trademark…?”

Kirigiri nodded slowly.

“A message left behind to taunt the police, left at every one of his crime scenes… If Togami’s to be believed, one of us **is** Genocide Jack… I’m not so sure if this is one of Jack’s victims, however. It’s easy to point the finger at a serial killer when a crime scene is **this** violent, and that might just be what the killer is after.”

Sayaka scowled and growled in frustration. She knew it was probably best to question the evidence they found, but it made the investigation seem so slow…! And standing in all this carnage, being forced to acknowledge **this** was how Oogami, their friend, died… It made her so mad that the killer might’ve made a spectacle of Oogami’s death! **Oogami didn’t deserve this**!

Walking around the room to give it a cursory investigation, Makoto eventually wound up in front of the open locker behind Oogami. He frowned when he saw handprints left in the dust on the inside of the door.

“Wh-What the…? Was someone **in** the locker…?” Makoto spluttered in shock. Kyoko strode over and examined the locker herself.

“Hmm… Quite the amount of dust… No one’s cleaned it in a while. Prints were left anywhere it was touched, and they’re definitely recent. Just like you, I think someone was hiding in here.”

Makoto stared down thoughtfully as he tried to consider the possibility that someone was hiding in the locker when they opened the room, and then slipped into the crowd to avoid suspicion… However, there were a couple of problems with that theory. The first was that he, Celes, Kirigiri, and Fujisaki cracked open the room together. Togami was unconscious on the floor. And Oowada and Maizono were heard and seen rushing up the stairs together and then arriving at the rec room. That meant only Ikusaba could have hidden in the locker… and yet, no one had caught a glimpse of her since earlier this morning.

Even if she was the Ultimate Soldier, he had doubts about **no one** seeing her sneaking around and trying to leave the room… Maybe if the rec room felt less cramped with six to seven of them in it and highly alert with the gruesome surroundings, or had more exits… But…

“Looks like you’re thinking about when a person could have been hiding in here, too…” Kirigiri smirked as the luckster stared at her with shocked, bulging eyes. He really was like an open book. “Don’t forget, before we opened the locked room, the locker was already open. It’s even more impossible than you think that someone could have been hiding in there, and then sneaked out. Someone was in there recently, but they were out of there **before** the room became locked… There’s only two distinct possibilities. One: The killer was hiding in the locker, and surprise attacked Oogami. Or two: There’s a witness to the murder.”

Sayaka’s brow furrowed as Kyoko brought up the second possibility.

“A witness…? Is that even possible?”

Between the struggle and the creation of the locked room… It seemed impossible a third, unrelated person had found a way to slip out, undetected…

Kirigiri closed her eyes calmly.

“Fujisaki interacted with Oogami not once, but twice. It only became a locked room **after** Fujisaki went to retrieve the rest of us. I think it’s very possible someone could have slipped out before Fujisaki came across Oogami the first time, or while he was off getting the protein drink for Oogami, or even right after Fujisaki went to fetch us… You, Oowada, and Ikusaba are the only ones unaccounted for, during these times.”

Sayaka bit her lower lip anxiously. Makoto frowned thoughtfully.

“Kirigiri… hold on… You don’t have an alibi either, right? Fujisaki found you after Oogami sent him out to get everyone, but that doesn’t account for the other two times.”

Kyoko smiled, chagrined. Eyes remained closed.

“You’re right; I don’t have an alibi… I won’t make excuses.” Kirigiri then crossed her arms and stared at the luckster sharply. “But do you really think I would conceal something this big? Or that I lied, when I said I didn’t go to the meeting with Oogami?”

Makoto dipped his head, but didn’t back down.

“I think… if it cracked the case wide open, anything’s possible. I’m not saying you’re the killer… just… keeping an open mind.”

“…” Kyoko had no rebuttal for that. She looked to the side and ran a hand through her hair. “I take it you and Celes were together, the entire time?”

Makoto nodded, looking back up.

“Yeah. Time… kinda got away from us.” He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. He knew it sounded like a lame excuse… but it’s really what happened.

Kyoko gave a small, wry smile.

“Well, if nothing else, it’s refreshing to have people with airtight alibis. You two and Fujisaki are the least likely culprits, this time around. That might not seem like much, but every little bit helps.”

Makoto’s head dipped again.

“… You still suspect Ikusaba the most, though…” He tried to keep the bitterness out of his tone, but wasn’t sure if he completely succeeded. He winced at Kyoko’s sharp glare.

“Well, considering what we’ve seen so far, don’t you think she’s at least involved? Even if Togami is suspicious, too, he does have a good point – he couldn’t have fought Oogami. Not enough to make Oogami wounded **this** much, and escape unscathed. Not even Oowada could muster that.” The mysterious girl’s words were sharp and cold, like steel. But Makoto accepted the logic – out of all of them, Ikusaba was the most physically capable, aside from Oogami herself.

And Ikusaba **had** been pushed into a corner… If Monokuma had taken advantage of that, who knows what kind of state the soldier was in?

_‘Ikusaba… I’m sorry I wasn’t there…’_ Makoto squeezed his eyes shut tight in guilt. He clenched his hand into a fist, and looked down at it in determination. _‘… But I’m not giving up. I want to believe, no matter how cornered you were, you weren’t responsible for Oogami’s death! I just need to find the evidence that proves your innocence… I **swear** I’ll find it…!’_

It didn’t matter to him if Ikusaba was completely innocent or not. If there was at least a possibility that the soldier hadn’t delivered the final blow, he was going to chase down those leads to the ends of the earth. It was only over and done if Ikusaba really was the murderer… Living on, even if that meant struggling to atone, was a far better outcome to that of being executed.

Celes and Oowada should have known that all too well…

~*~

Fujisaki jumped as a snide sneer came from someone entering the chem lab, behind him.

“Hmph… So, you had your eyes set on this chemistry lab, too? I was expecting Naegi to be drawn here… pity.”

The programmer wheeled around to face the Togami heir, fingers pressing nervously together. Out of everyone… why did Togami have to come up here…?

“I-I’m sorry…! I just… I remembered the lab was like this when I came to get the protein for Oogami! I-I thought this was how I could help everyone!”

Togami scoffed at the fragile boy’s desperate, but earnest, pleas. He crossed his arms and looked over the mess in front of the shelves with a shrewd eye.

“Hmph… It was like this already, eh…? Show me your shoes!” The heir barked, pointing at the programmer coldly. Fujisaki feebly complied, and Togami took his sweet time looking them over completely. Only the soles had that yellow-green powder on them. “Tch. Fine, you can do the grunt work while we’re here. Naegi would have been my first choice, but you’ll have to do…”

Fujisaki pressed his fingers together anxiously.

“U-Umm… N-Not that I m-mind… But…”

“What?” The heir snapped.

“W-Well, I mean, wh-why are you okay with my shoes…? Th-They’re a mess, a-and…” He trailed off, lost. Togami scoffed loudly.

“Oi vey… Don’t make me repeat myself. The fact you have shoes like that just means you left those footprints. While that is suspicious in itself, there’s no powder on the top or the sides of your shoes; that means you didn’t create that mess.” He pointed at the spilt bottle of powder arrogantly. “Ergo. You visited only one shelf. That’s all there is to it.”

Fujisaki humbly bowed his head, muttering apologies. The heir paid them no heed, and went about examining the shelves, as that was his initial intent for coming here. He narrowed his eyes as he recalled how the shelves were organized. They were pretty large, and separated into three sections.

… Not that the programmer seemed to be looking at them. Clearly, his attention was on the smashed bottle that had spilled the powder.

“’Chem Lab C-4’…” Fujisaki mumbled the words printed on the label as he got a better look. Togami raised a finger to his temple as he reflected on something.

“You know… I was up here on the fourth floor earlier this morning, and the chem lab was **not** like this at the time… That means…”

“Th-The bottle was spilled around the time of the crime…!” Fujisaki gasped in shock. Togami rolled his eyes.

“Yes, it’s undoubtedly connected… Now, I need a diagram to get a better idea of how your footprints are laid out with respect to the room itself.”

Fujisaki’s brow furrowed as he tried to process the heir’s words.

“A-Are… Are you telling me to map it out…?”

Togami looked down his nose at the programmer.

“You said you wanted to **help** , didn’t you…?” The heir sneered. Fujisaki trembled at the frosty tone, but complied all the same. Togami at least provided him pen and paper…

Soon enough, Fujisaki had a rough sketch of the chem lab, including the spill and footprints in front of the shelves. Togami nodded sharply in approval.

“Not bad, for the likes of you… Now, it’s time to review the contents of those shelves… **especially** the leftmost one, since it’s the one **you** had business with…” Togami scowled as he resumed his observations of the shelves. “Cabinet A… has an assortment of nutrients, supplements, and the like inside. That means your story of fetching protein for Oogami is most likely the truth… A shame I never took stock of the shelves to know for sure how many there were in each one. Regardless, all the labels in this cabinet start with ‘A’.”

Fujisaki started trembling once again.

“C-Cabinet B… It has a lot of weird chemicals I’ve never heard of!”

“They’re called **reagents**.” Togami specified. “Compounds used to induce or check for chemical reactions in chemistry experiments. I’m surprised you can live in such blissful ignorance… Even if your field of science is completely different, you would do well to expand your horizons! Math and chemistry have real life applications in the real world, you’d do well to remember that.”

Fujisaki wilted at the insults. Feebly, he tried to press on.

“A-All the labels start with ‘B’ in this cabinet…”

Togami rolled his eyes.

“Moving on… Cabinet C has poisons and other potentially hazardous chemicals. The labels start with the letter ‘C’.”

Fujisaki’s brows knit together as he got a better look at the third shelf. Something stuck out to him, though it was really subtle, and he was surprised that he picked up on it so quick…

“H-Hey… th-that bottle that says ‘Chem Lab C-9’… C-Can I…?” The programmer trailed off leadingly. The heir looked down at the diagram and snorted.

“Since we have this, I don’t see why not. Just avoid the powder as much as possible, I don’t need the others’ stupidity holding us up at the trial because **you** tainted the crime scene.”

Fujisaki wilted again, but tried to be as careful as possible. He winced as shards of glass were smashed and splintered under his feet, and shivered at the heir’s impatient growl. Soon enough, however, the bottle in question was in his hands, and he stepped back quickly to avoid standing in the powder and glass.

“Well?” Togami barked as the programmer glanced at the bottle in his hands. Fujisaki’s brow knitted together in concern.

“Th-This bottle… it’s d-different from the ‘C-4’ bottle that’s smashed on the floor…” Fujisaki looked up at the heir with a look of certainty. “The contents are different!”

Togami could only scoff in disbelief.

“That’s it? **That’s** what stuck out to you? Unbelievable. No two poisons are going to be the same!” The heir growled.

Fujisaki shook his head hurriedly.

“N-No, no! I-I…! I swear, I’ve s-seen something like this before! I-I know this is important, somehow…!”

Togami sneered.

“You’ve ‘seen this before’? You actually admit you’ve paid attention to the poisons in this lab? I’m impressed you can admit that out loud. Most would shy away from knowing such **dangerous** chemicals…” He chuckled darkly.

Fujisaki shook his head rapidly.

“N-N-No…! No, no, no…! I swear it’s not that at all…!” Really, it wasn’t!

But Togami wasn’t listening. The heir crossed his arms and looked to the side.

“Regardless, that will suffice now. I’m off to other areas. Do try to keep the trial **interesting** , will you…?” With that, Togami arrogantly strode out of the lab, completely ignoring the quivering, sniveling programmer.

Fujisaki looked down at the bottle, dejected. He probably should have waited until Togami was gone, but he’d been so nervous about ‘tainting the scene’, as Togami called it. He glared at the bottle with determination.

_‘I know I’ve seen this somewhere, I know I have!’_ He just had to remember where…

Abruptly, Chihiro chewed his lower lip anxiously. His other finding… he was really glad he got to it before Togami saw it. The spill in front of the shelves had made him concerned, of course, but that hadn’t been the reason he came up here to investigate the chem lab.

Slowly, Fujisaki withdrew a folded note from his pocket. A note he’d found tucked away in Cabinet A, but hadn’t bothered to investigate it until now because he’d been so concerned about Sakura. The only problem was… the recipient’s name was clearly legible.

As much as he wanted to, Fujisaki couldn’t read this note. All he could do… was deliver it to the intended person. That… That was the job Oogami had left for him to do. He believed that with all his heart. Oogami… trusted him.

And Fujisaki would not break that trust. No matter how confused he was by all of this, Fujisaki would believe in Oogami – that she had a plan. That she didn’t die in vain.

… He just wished Oogami hadn’t had to die at all…

~*~

The soldier closed the door behind her, feeling as frantic as when she had entered that room. She still hadn’t found it. Where **was** it?! Oogami wasn’t this clever! She could never hope to outwit Junko!

So why…?

“Somehow, I had a feeling you would be down here…”

Mukuro froze mid-turn. Even if it was farfetched, she had been about to check the trash room next. She’d already torn up Oogami’s room – **twice** – and checked the cafeteria, laundry room, and dressing room. The body discovery announcement had gone off a while ago, so she knew her time was short…

But damnit, did it **have** to be this bitch?!

“…” Mukuro’s hands clenched into fists, not saying anything. Even if she was caught red-handed like this, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was the mission. Stay focused, and don’t give anything away.

“Nothing to say…? I must say, that’s disappointing. I promised Naegi-kun I would **try** …” Celes growled, rolling her eyes in annoyance. “But if you’re not even going to mount a defense…”

… But most importantly, **don’t** wring any of their classmates’ necks, no matter how much they pissed her off. Junko had been quite clear on that – no killing!

“ **Don’t** … say that name…” Mukuro growled lowly back. She kept her frosty gaze averted and trained on the floor.

Celes narrowed her eyes.

“What? Naegi-kun?” She hadn’t meant to egg the soldier on, it sort of just came out… not that she regretted it, given Ikusaba’s attitude…

“You have no **right** …!” Mukuro hissed, trembling. But she kept herself in check. Because Junko ordered it.

“Given the current state of things, I think I have **every** right…” Celes spoke airily, placing her hands on her hips. “But what about you? What gives **you** the right to be so defensive of him?”

“I **protected** him…!” Mukuro hissed, eyeing the gambler out of the corner of her eye, venomously. “Which is more than you! If you’d succeeded, we’d all be dead! And that would have **hurt** him…!”

She wanted to punch that gothic Lolita’s lights out… **god** , she wanted to do it so bad… But her orders…

“You **protected** him? Really?” The goth deadpanned, eyes staring dully at the soldier. “I will confess, my efforts were misguided. I will freely admit that I am **not** a good person… But you…? Are you even listening to yourself? If you really **did** murder Oogami, then you don’t have the right to speak so high and mighty… Because Oogami was his **friend**.”

… were looking less and less inviting by the minute…

“She was **not** his friend…!” Mukuro snarled, whirling on the gambler viciously. “She was manipulating him! And so are all of **you**! This is **your fault** …!”

It was all **their** fault… Naegi-kun would still give her the benefit of the doubt if it wasn’t for them. He wouldn’t loathe her existence… regret their friendship…! He…!

Celes was blinking in astonishment, to the soldier’s confusion.

“ **What**?!” Mukuro snapped.

“… You’re crying…” Celes hesitantly noted. She wasn’t sure if it was wise to do so. And she regretted it a little when Mukuro swiped at her eyes furiously, her mouth contorted into a snarl.

“ **No** , **I’m not** …!” Mukuro bellowed. She was **not** showing weakness…! **Not** in front of this bitch! She…!

… The growing wetness on her cheeks and hands was becoming harder to ignore…

Celes took a deep breath. Even if she didn’t understand Mukuro’s motivations, she did understand one thing. And that made it very hard to muster her next words, because it was a bitter pill to swallow…

“I’m sorry…” The gambler murmured, cradling her arm and staring down at the floor. This only baffled the soldier.

“ **Wh-What**?!”

Celes kept her gaze averted.

“Though the blame can be shared, I must concede this is my fault… I allowed my bitterness and rage to lash out. I drove you to this.”

Mukuro’s emotional state made it impossible to voice her abject confusion. Celes… **never** apologized like this. Not once in the two years she’d known the gambler; she never even apologized to Yamada for treating him like a slave. Not one damn time.

… This had to be a trick to make her lower her guard.

“… Ikusaba.” Celes firmly raised her head to meet the soldier’s watery, bloodshot eyes. “You have every right to be angry. With me, with everyone else… But Naegi-kun **still** holds faith in you. I never understood why, but I am starting to get it. As strange as it is, you are as much a victim as us… Naegi-kun saw that before anyone else.”

“Naegi-kun… still…?” Ikusaba attempted to echo, but she felt her mind beginning to shut down.

This had to be a trick… But Celes’s eyes were honest and genuine. And that meant…

That meant…

“That doesn’t excuse what you’ve done,” Celes’s tone became slightly cold. Mukuro’s body twitched at the shift. But even so, the gambler pressed on. “If you really did murder Oogami, you owe it to Naegi-kun to come out with it now. If you don’t, he will keep fighting for your innocence, because that’s just the kind of person he is. And if he does that, and manages to convince the rest of us… You **know** you will be the only survivor, and Naegi-kun will die. Don’t make the same mistake I did and wait until the trial. Go to him now.”

Mukuro’s body twitched again. Her fight-or-flight instincts kicking in.

_‘N-Naegi-kun’s… fighting… for **me** …?’ _The soft, fragile voice in her mind echoed numbly.

_‘Bullshit! Ludenberg’s a world-class liar, and you know it! You heard what she said in the cafeteria. She wants you to **suffer** …’ _The vicious voice in her head countered. _‘The others got to him, I’m sure of it! No one’s that softhearted!’_

… She ran yet again, without hesitation. She ran, and ran, and ran. She wasn’t going to be able to complete her mission by the time the trial rolled around, but frankly, Mukuro didn’t care at the moment. She just had to get as far away from everyone as she could… Because nothing made **sense** …!

Celes watched the soldier bolt. Only now, she had a better idea of just what Ikusaba was running from… And it made her clench a fist in frustration.

She could read people better than most. And yet she’d missed this… She seriously must have been slipping.

… Why was it so hard to turn herself around? Even now, when she got a better understanding of the Ultimate Soldier, she still found feelings of resentment and jealousy brewing in the back of her mind. Ikusaba was definitely going to make this hard for all of them, and Naegi-kun was still going to fight for her, to the bitter end.

_‘For his sake, I hope you weren’t that stupid, Ikusaba… But you crossed that blood red line, didn’t you? You at least **tried** to…’ _

Celes knew she had. Ikusaba wouldn’t have been running from her guilt, otherwise…

~*~

Time eventually ran out, as it always did. When all eight of them gathered in the foyer that led to the elevator, Monokuma appeared, paws over his mouth and giggling.

“The Ultimate Fighter, lmao! A sealed room murder, lmao!”

“… What are you doing?” Kirigiri deadpanned at the bear.

Monokuma released a contented sigh.

“I just realized how **awesome** acronyms are! Doesn’t matter how depressing something is, just add ‘lmao’ in there and suddenly it’s bright and happy! For example: We found a decomposing body at our picnic, lmao!”

Mondo sweatdropped.

“That’s just fucked up, asshole…”

Monokuma tilted his head.

“Then what about the other way around? No matter how happy something is, throw an ‘fml’ in there and suddenly it’s dark and depressing! For example: I hope I can make a whole bunch of friends, fml!”

“…” No one responded to him anymore. Monokuma just giggled.

“Please board the elevator at the back of the room, lmao! I’ll go on ahead and meet you there, fml!” Monokuma took his leave.

Fujisaki looked around nervously.

“Wh-What was that all about…?”

Togami rolled his eyes.

“Does it matter? He probably wants you to try and make sense of his nonsense. Just ignore him.”

“Finding Oogami’s killer is more important, anyway…” Sayaka growled, narrowing her eyes at the heir. She still suspected him, and the blond only scoffed in response.

“We **all** know who killed her!” Mondo insisted with a tight voice, clenching his fist hard enough to hurt as he glared at Ikusaba, who stayed silent. “I still say skip this horseshit!”

Kirigiri sighed patiently.

“… That’s still not confirmed. We’ll go over everything at the trial. Remember: We only get the one chance to get this right.”

As they started to board the elevator, Makoto looked down thoughtfully.

_‘The culprit who killed Oogami… She was stronger than any of us… and yet, her murderer… is somewhere in this room?!’_ He still didn’t want to believe it. With each step forward, he felt like he was drifting further and further away from his goal… like a creeping fear building up within, causing him to slowly rot away from the inside out…

It was… a feeling he would never grow accustomed to, no matter how many times he had to face it.

Soon enough, they reached the trial ground. And just like always, the bear had remodeled everything. It looked like he’d gone with an Egyptian and/or tomb theme, this time…

“Weeell, it looks like we’re down to eight… So few! So lonely!” The bear hung his head shamefully.

“What are you **talking** about?!” Makoto couldn’t help roaring in outrage. “It’s all… It’s all **your** fault!”

Monokuma giggled, paws over his mouth.

“Is it gonna be even lonelier after this Class Trial…? Or is this going to be the end of the academic coliseum?!” Monokuma belted out a loud cackle. “Well, let’s get this party started! Go find the seat with your name on it!”

… And so the curtain rose on their fourth Class Trial. Just what awaited them in these murky depths…?

Makoto knew there would be a lot of Despair… but he still held onto a fervent prayer… that there could be a ray of Hope **somewhere** …

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I've mentioned a few times to people... the energy for this chapter isn't so much in the mystery of the murder... It's in the characters. And we're in for a ride with this one. Hold onto your favorites dearly while you still can~:3
> 
> Poor Muku, though. :( What will she decide, in the end~? Or has she decided already...? Guess we'll find out after the trial. :3


	21. Chapter 4, Part 7: All All Apologies

_Rain fell over the cemetery – at first a light drizzle, but it became a torrential downpour as the procession dragged on. And with it being fall, the temperature was brisk. A chilling breeze flitted dead, soaked leaves across the grass and graves. Fitting weather for a gloomy day._

_Eventually, though, like all things, the service ended. The mourners went their separate ways at their own paces._

_“I’m really sorry…!” Asahina sobbed and wrapped the luckster in a great bear hug. Makoto just patted her back consolingly._

_“H-Hey, it’s okay, Asahina… You guys have your own lives, too. I really appreciate you coming out.” He assured the emotional swimmer._

_“Our own lives, yes… But you’re a member of Class 78, Naegi. We look after our own.” Togami spoke up from nearby, where Fukawa was holding an umbrella over him dutifully. He had his arms crossed like always, but his facial features were softer than normal._

_Makoto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly._

_“He was just a friend from middle school!” The luckster tried to it play off, though not sounding very convincing. He smiled wryly as even he himself realized this. “… Thanks, guys. I mean it.”_

_Hagakure chuckled, arms lazily behind his head as he grinned nonchalantly._

_“Anything to keep the ghosts away, Naegi-chi! We don’t want ‘em spookin’ up homeroom!” He then cupped his chin speculatively. “Plus, it let me meet a buncha new potential clients…”_

_The clairvoyant whined as Leon elbowed him. Mondo growled as he instinctively gagged Kiyotaka before he could launch into a – quite frankly deserved – tirade about morals._

_“Show some damn decorum, man, geez…”_

_“Mr. Yasuhiro Hagakure knows what that word means?” Yamada dryly asked from over where he was, holding an umbrella over Celes._

_Asahina drew back with watery eyes._

_“You gonna be okay?”_

_Makoto smiled thinly, patting Asahina’s shoulder consolingly._

_“Don’t worry about me! I’ll cheer up by Monday, I promise!”_

_At Asahina’s dubious stare, Maizono grinned and leaned her head on her luckster’s shoulder._

_“Don’t worry about a thing! I’ll be watching over him all weekend – postponed some photoshoots and interviews due to ‘family emergency’.” And if that flew over everybody’s heads, the idol was fine with that. She’d probably die of embarrassment if they figured out just how serious she was when she ‘made up’ that excuse… Even moreso if Makoto actually worked it out…_

_Sayaka really, **really** liked him, okay?_

_Sakura frowned lightly, crossing her arms and brow creasing in concern._

_“If you need us, you know we are only a phone call away…”_

_As Makoto smiled and nodded his acceptance, Byakuya pointed at him demandingly._

_“I’ve seen fit to cover the funeral expenses. Don’t even think of repaying a single dime. On the Togami name, I won’t allow it.” He crossed his arms and smirked, closing his eyes. “It was but a drop in the ocean, after all… Never say I don’t do anything for you commoners.”_

_“It **was** a joint effort…” Celes dryly quipped, rolling her eyes. _

_Makoto scratched his cheek sheepishly at Togami’s… generosity. Even when being a nice guy, the heir just… somehow finds ways to squeeze in an insult somewhere. Still, he nodded and smiled gratefully at both Celes and Togami’s gestures. It was big of them to donate like that…_

_… For Celes, especially, considering her dream… Funeral costs are nothing to sniff at._

_“Shame that Enoshima couldn’t make it…” Leon ran a hand through his hair exasperatedly. “Kirigiri and Fujisaki were at least here for a bit! Where the hell’s her priorities?”_

_Mondo deadpanned at the baseball star, having released Kiyotaka by now._

_“You **really** want that crazy chick here…? Prolly would have embarrassed us…”_

_A few of them shivered in agreement as they thought about it. They relaxed in each other’s company for a few more minutes, but then gradually had to go, schedules to keep._

_As his friends left to go back to their lives, save for Sayaka, the luckster made his way over to a nearby tree, where one friend had been perched under for the entire time they’d been there._

_“Ikusaba!” Makoto smiled warmly at the soldier, who was leaning back against the tree calmly. “Thanks for coming! It really means a lot…”_

_“Naegi-kun…” Mukuro murmured softly, once again enraptured by that smile of his. She averted her gaze shyly. “I-I-I just didn’t want you to be… alone… today…”_

_Of course, Mukuro knew that was impossible. Not only because of his family and other middle school friends in attendance, but because Sayaka demonstrated yet again why she was the perfect girlfriend… Learning about his loss, and telling all their classmates in secret… Makoto was so shocked when everybody showed up, out of the blue. He’d kept it from them so that they wouldn’t worry about him._

_… Not that it was any more possible for Mukuro **not** to worry about the luckster. Between his random bouts of luck, their classmates, and upperclassmen, the soldier had enough on her plate to worry about when it came to the brunet. What made it more stress-inducing was the fact she couldn’t keep tabs on him most of the time because of Junko and her whims. _

_~~But she could balance them both, really! She just needed to try harder!~~_

_“I appreciate it!” Makoto chuckled warmly and patted her shoulder. “I’m lucky to have you as a friend! You’re amazing.”_

_Mukuro’s brow furrowed as her nose wrinkled slightly in confusion. She turned her gaze to his face again, searchingly._

_“Amazing…? Me…?” The soldier echoed, tasting the words like they were in a foreign language._

_Makoto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly._

_“W-Well, I mean…” He stared at the ground in embarrassment. “You guys are so talented, and you all have your own busy lives… But you made time for me, the most average guy in Hope’s Peak! I just… don’t know what to say.”_

_Mukuro patted his head awkwardly, not really sure how else she could give consolation without crossing… boundaries. She wasn’t bold like Asahina, or dependable like Oogami…_

_“You lost a friend! Anyone would be there for you!” The soldier abruptly bowed her head in shame. “F-Forgive Junko! Sh-She… She had an appointment…”_

‘Because of that, you’re stuck with me…’ _She thought morosely to herself._

_Useless, smelly old Mukuro…_

_The soldier blinked in astonishment as she felt her own head patted affectionately. She looked up and gasped lightly. That **smile** …_

_“It’s okay, Ikusaba! Enoshima’s still my friend, too! Honestly, I think I’m happier you’re here by yourself.” He rubbed the back of his head bashfully at how that came out. “I-I mean… It seems like we barely get to hang out, y’know? N-Not that Enoshima can’t be there, too! Just…”_

_Makoto smiled wryly and shrugged his shoulders neutrally._

_“I wanna get to know **you** better. I hear lots about Enoshima and everyone else, and I’m ecstatic to! I just think… you shouldn’t be left out. I-Is that okay?”_

_Mukuro’s brow remained furrowed as she studied the luckster like he was an enigma. Shyly, after several awkward moments of silence, the soldier nodded. The boy laughed and invited her to join him and Sayaka for lunch._

_Mukuro trailed behind him, dazed and lost… but also… strangely tingly inside. No one wanted to know about her just for the sake of being her friend – they mostly had professional curiosity about her skills and background, and that was about it. Otherwise, she was a nameless face in the background that waited for further orders._

_She didn’t dislike this feeling of **belonging** , though…_

_… But what would Junko say? If she lied and said this was for the Despair, would Junko approve?_

_~~Would Junko even care?~~_

~*~

Monokuma hummed nonchalantly.

“You all know the rules by now! So, hmm… let’s seeeeee…. where to begin…”

Mondo growled impatiently.

“We know… who the killer is already!”

“Whoa! Gettin’ some major déjà vu here!” The bear giggled hysterically.

Mondo popped his knuckle threateningly, gritting his teeth as he glared daggers at the Ultimate Soldier.

“Oogami was killed… by that bitch right there! She was like a damn **porcupine** , all those weapons stickin’ out of her! **No one** could swing those things around and fight Oogami with ‘em, **except** for Ikusaba…!”

“…” Mukuro just glared straight back at the biker, offering no retort.

Kyoko took a deep breath and ran a hand through her hair.

“Since Oowada brought the topic of the weapons up, I suppose we can start there. Ikusaba, care to give your input? Is Oowada’s opinion a fair assessment of those weapons?”

“…” Mukuro’s cold stare simply switched to Kyoko, keeping her silence.

Makoto rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

“I don’t think this is a good topic to start with… It’s easy to suspect the soldier when weapons are involved, but what about the factors that point away from Ikusaba being the culprit…? There’s no shortage of those…”

Togami snorted derisively.

“Such as…?”

Sayaka’s brow furrowed as she thought it over.

“Well… It **is** weird a sealed room was created… I mean, Ikusaba wasn’t anywhere inside! If she killed Oogami, how did she do it?”

Togami rolled his eyes at that argument.

“Feh… Child’s play. Ikusaba just slipped out while all of you were gawking at the corpse… Problem solved.”

Kirigiri turned sharply towards the heir.

“The problem with your theory is that there wasn’t anywhere to stay out of sight, and then stealthily slip out of the room from. The rec room has that one door, and there were four of us when we discovered the body. I find it hard to believe Ikusaba eluded **that** many eyes…”

Byakuya clicked his tongue sharply.

“Ultimate Soldier, remember? If she wanted, she could probably creep along the ceiling and slip out once you broke the door open!” The heir crossed his arms stubbornly and sneered. “But that’s not good enough without evidence, right? How about this: There is a locker in that rec room, isn’t there? Couldn’t she have hid in there until an opportune moment presented itself?”

Makoto shook his head, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

“No… That locker was wide open, even before I broke the glass! No one was hiding there when we opened the sealed room.”

Kyoko ran a hand through her hair calmly.

“Although we **do** suspect someone was hiding in there at some point… Just not at the time of the body’s discovery.”

Byakuya clicked his tongue again, but backed down for now. A temporary silence fell over the group as they processed this information.

“Wh…” All eyes fell on the Ultimate Soldier, who finally deigned to speak. When they looked at her, there was a fear in her eyes that none of them could comprehend. “What are you all talking about…? A-A sealed room…?”

Several stared at the soldier in disbelief at her apparent ignorance of the state of the crime scene. Makoto and Kyoko latched onto this reaction, but stayed thoughtfully silent. Celes placed her hands on her hips.

“… That’s right, you never came up after the announcement… And no one bothered to fill you in. We had to break the window in order to gain access to that room.”

Mukuro was not having this, however. Her eyes only widened further, and she shook her head in denial.

“Th-That’s not possible…! That room doesn’t have a lock! You **know** that…!” The soldier cried indignantly.

“And that’s why a chair was used to jam the door handle…” Kyoko piped up, making the soldier’s head snap towards her. “Someone purposely created that sealed room.”

“That’s not **possible**!” Mukuro persisted. “Th-There was no one left **to** create it…!”

The silence that followed became unsettling. Unwittingly or not, Mukuro had just admitted to something crucial. Sayaka was the first to recover out of all of them, narrowing her eyes.

“How do you know that…?” The idol asked suspiciously. Mukuro was too caught up in her panic to realize her mistake.

“O-Oogami was **dead** …! And Togami was unconscious by the pool table!” The soldier was trembling, but a bit of indignant rage was slipping into the fear, now. “E… Evidence! Th-That’s right! P-Prove that room was ‘sealed’! I-I bet you can’t…!”

Makoto’s eyes clenched shut painfully at the soldier’s continued denial. She was admitting to too much information that she couldn’t have just deduced from the discussion so far. And that meant… she was definitely involved in this case.

… Not that there was much doubt to begin with…

“Ikusaba…” The luckster’s voice was firm, and he held her petrified gaze with his own determined one. “I smashed the window, myself! Celes, Kirigiri, and Fujisaki were there when it happened! I shoved the chair out of the way with my own hands!”

“P-Prove the chair was m-moved in the first place…!” Mukuro argued back, stubbornly. She wasn’t there when they discovered the body, so she hadn’t seen the shattered glass. Even if she was shown it now, it wouldn’t prove anything in her mind.

“The bloody handprints on the armrests…!” Makoto declared with certainty. “The way they’re positioned, somebody **manually** picked up the chair and moved it! There’s trails of blood on the floor, too!”

Mukuro felt an icy chill overwhelm her body as the luckster brought these up. She hadn’t seen any of these things, either. Kyoko cupped her chin and narrowed her eyes as she gazed at the floor.

“After carefully investigating that room, I’d have to admit that would take an awful lot of effort to fabricate… And what’s more, there really isn’t a benefit to the only other person in the room – he gains nothing by sealing himself in with Oogami, nothing but suspicion, at any rate…”

Togami sneered at the speculation.

“I told you dolts, I was **unconscious**... Try cleaning out your ears, next time!”

Mondo raised a twitching hand furiously.

“So what does that **mean**?! Oogami created the sealed room? You sayin’ that’s the only possibility left?!”

Makoto dipped his head sadly, looking off to the side.

“I don’t like it, either, Oowada… But that’s what the evidence says. Considering Ikusaba’s reaction to all this, she didn’t know about the sealed room… That’s the only possibility left!”

“ **Bullshit**!” Mondo raged. “I’ll buy that Oogami mighta created that room… But Ikusaba didn’t **know** about this shit?! **No fucking way in hell**!”

As the luckster winced at the biker’s volume and shrank in on himself, Celes arched an eyebrow curiously.

“Really? I’d say her reaction was pretty genuine… Admittedly, delusional for denying evidence that we all saw and investigated ourselves… but still genuine.”

Mondo’s hands clenched into fists at his side, and he breathed in and out heavily in frustration and pent-up rage. He glared murderously at the gambler.

“This comin’ from the two-faced bitch that lucked out when Kuwata stole what should have been **your** execution…” The biker spat caustically. His glare shifted back to Ikusaba. “Like I said, Oogami created that sealed room… but only to keep **this** murdering bitch away from her! Oogami died ‘cause we couldn’t get to her and help her! You ever think o’ that?!”

Uncertainty met the biker’s latest rant. For once, he wasn’t just spewing curses and accusations… He just submitted a very plausible-sounding theory, and they at least had to reflect on it. Even Togami went quiet as he raised a finger to his temple and stared off into space.

Makoto frowned deeply as he met Oowada’s furious glare.

“… No. That… that doesn’t work…”

“Why the **fuck** not?!” Mondo raged, raising a fist threateningly. Makoto steeled his resolve.

“Fujisaki…” The luckster muttered, casting his gaze to the quivering programmer next. “You were the first one to see Oogami, right? And she was still alive?”

Fujisaki nodded rapidly, and tried not to cry when Oowada’s glare fell on him next.

“I-I did…! O-Oogami begged me to get her some protein, s-so I rushed up to the chem lab…! A-And I gave it to her! Sh-She was still alive, I swear…!”

Mukuro felt more ice stab at her heart as Chihiro confessed this. H-Had she really… screwed up to this extent…? What did this…?

“Ikusaba probably caught on!” Mondo roared, slamming his fist down onto the witness stand. “You were in and outta that rec room, what, two or three times?! If Ikusaba was still around nearby, she probably saw you! So Oogami drove her out and jammed the door…!”

Kyoko cupper her chin, staring off into space shrewdly.

“While I won’t deny it’s **possible** … It’s still **unlikely**.” The mysterious girl emphasized. She arched an eyebrow as the biker furiously glared at her. “Oogami was grievously injured, Oowada. Even if she **could** hold Ikusaba off long enough to bar the door, that doesn’t explain one thing…”

“And that is?!” Mondo demanded heatedly.

“… Naegi being the one that broke the window.” Kirigiri coolly replied. She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at the biker. “No matter how you look at it, your scenario doesn’t make sense when Naegi opened up the sealed room. If he could shatter that window, **why didn’t Ikusaba**?”

Mondo recoiled at the mysterious girl’s rebuttal. He couldn’t offer up a counterargument to that. Byakuya arched an eyebrow casually, however.

“Perhaps she was concerned she would take too long to finish the job before Fujisaki returned? Being caught in the act of ending Oogami’s life would have been her death sentence…”

Kyoko shook her head slowly.

“Someone that attacked Oogami with such ferocity… wouldn’t have cared about the risk of being caught. She would have finished the job if she knew Oogami had survived her initial attack, I have no doubts about that.” She cupped her chin again, staring down at the floor with a narrowed gaze once more. “Naegi’s right. We need to go over this some more. Ikusaba is still the likeliest suspect… but I’d be a fool to write her off as the **only** suspect…”

Sayaka’s eyes softened as she stared down dejectedly.

“Well, what should we talk about next…? I feel like there’s so much we just don’t know…” She chewed her lower lip in worry, and looked to her luckster with a pleading stare, hoping he had some ideas.

Makoto’s brow crinkled in concern as well, and he tried giving the idol a reassuring grin that he was pretty sure didn’t do its job too well… Nevertheless, he turned to Mukuro next.

“Ikusaba…?” He asked gently. “C-Could… Could you tell us what happened…? I-I think it’d be best if we started with your side of the story…”

He had the best of intentions. And even Mukuro could sense that. Yet… she screwed her eyes shut tight and shook her head rapidly. She just shrank in on herself and became unresponsive. To the others, this probably seemed damning, but to Makoto… anything was still possible, and that’s what mattered.

Celes released an airy sigh, hands on her hips and looking to the side disinterestedly.

“Perhaps we should start from the beginning that we know of. We’ll have to hear from Ikusaba at some point, but we still have knowledge of the timeline of events, correct?”

Her query was met with resolute nods, at least from most people. Togami just kept a finger raised to his temple, and Oowada snarled at her.

“Oogami died at approximately 10:00 a.m.” Kyoko summarized the Monokuma file. “But if we go back further than that… we also know Oogami asked us to come to the rec room at 9:00.”

Sayaka nodded sadly in agreement, and Mondo rubbed the back of his head, looking down with gritted teeth. Togami sneered and crossed his arms, looking down with closed eyes and a pleased expression. Fujisaki was the one that dissented from all of them.

“A-Are you sure th-that was the time…? M-Mine said around 10:00…!” He’d wanted to make sure to come early, because he was worried about Oogami with everything going on. And he was glad he did, because he’d gotten there while Oogami was still alive… but still…

Kyoko narrowed her eyes as she recalled that detail.

“ **That** is true…” She recalled reading the note herself. Fujisaki’s was most certainly different. Yet why set Fujisaki apart…?

“Wh-Why was yours different, Fujisaki…?” Sayaka echoed Kyoko’s thoughts, obliviously. The programmer could only offer tearful apologies.

Mondo scowled deeply.

“The kid wasn’t pissed at Ikusaba like the rest of us were… ‘Course she wouldn’t want Fujisaki to get mixed up in our shit!” It’s what he would’ve done, after all.

“That doesn’t explain why Fujisaki received a summons like we did…” Kirigiri pointed out, narrowing her eyes further as she looked down. She couldn’t fathom what Oogami had possibly been thinking… If she wanted to spare Fujisaki from what would have been a volatile confrontation, why have him come at all?

Celes twirled a strand of hair around her finger and eyed the Ultimate Soldier idly.

“Ikusaba. Did you receive a note like the rest of us?” The gambler pressed. She’d discovered a note had been slid under her door, and as she understood it, Naegi was the only one **not** to have a note slid under his. At least that made sense, though… Makoto wasn’t distrustful and antagonistic like the rest of them; Sakura wouldn’t need to approach him, unless she wanted his help in winning everyone over.

Apparently, Oogami piled all that responsibility on her own shoulders…

“…” Mukuro had resumed her silent treatment from earlier in the trial. But rather than keep a neutral face, the soldier was frozen in terror at several different thoughts and worries assailing her.

“Tch. I’ll take **that** as a fucking yes…” Mondo scowled. Byakuya raised his finger to his temple yet again.

“Assuming Ikusaba’s summons was like the rest of ours, and not different like Fujisaki’s… Might it be safe to assume Ikusaba arrived early, stocked the area to her liking, and lied in wait in that locker?”

Kirigiri looked to the heir calmly.

“I assume you have some sort of basis?” Granted, it made logical sense Ikusaba stocked the rec room with those weapons beforehand… It was ludicrous to assume she carried all of those on her back while fighting Oogami or stepped out to resupply.

Still, solidifying the foundation of their theories was preferable, lest Ikusaba launch into another feverish round of denials…

“Of **course** I do…” Togami scoffed, sounding offended Kirigiri would even entertain otherwise. He scowled as his glare became piercing. “I never had any intention of going to that meeting, but I was dragged there anyway! I don’t even have a recollection of anything that transpired.”

“How’s **that** possible…?” Makoto couldn’t help wondering. He sweatdropped as Byakuya clicked his tongue.

“About ten minutes before the scheduled ‘meeting’, I holed myself up in my room.” The heir explained, crossing his arms stubbornly. “I never had any intention of leaving. Yet, when someone rang my bell, I’d been foolish enough to stick my head out when I didn’t spy anyone in the hall through the peephole… The moment I did, I was bludgeoned by something and blacked out. I don’t care whether it was Oogami or Ikusaba, whoever it was poached me and dragged me into their spat!”

Sayaka narrowed her eyes and growled in protest.

“Oogami would **never** do something like that…! She would have approached you directly if she thought you weren’t gonna come!”

Mondo cracked his knuckles threateningly.

“Yeah, asshole! Don’t go accusin’ Oogami of shit!”

Togami sighed theatrically at their predictable responses.

“Alright, **fine** , Ikusaba captured me… She was my prime suspect, anyway.” The heir sniffed imperiously.

Kyoko ran a hand through her hair as she reflected on the matter.

“You didn’t see your attacker, so it’s hard to say for certain… But Ikusaba likely had the stealth skills to pull off your capture, **and** she would have the most to gain from it, holding you hostage to demoralize Oogami…”

Celes, hands on her hips, looked over to Ikusaba sharply.

“Well, Ikusaba? Care to weigh in?”

“…” Mukuro remained reticent. She seemed less tense, but still not quite all ‘there’.

Makoto closed his eyes and sighed patiently.

“While we’re on the topic… Togami, you’re **sure** you were unconscious the whole time…?” He never did get around to questioning the heir during the investigation, and it bothered him Togami’s side of the story was one big ‘blank’…

Togami eyed the luckster shrewdly.

“I’ll say it as many times as I must… I woke up when the rest of you found me. I know nothing of Oogami’s murder.”

Celes narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the heir.

“… I’m calling you out on that. There’s no way you were unconscious the **whole** time…”

Togami sneered at the challenge.

“You say I woke up at some point…? Where’s your evidence?”

Celes sighed heavily in aggravation.

“You intend to feign ignorance until the very end? Very well.” She turned to the luckster expectantly. “Naegi-kun… Do you recall the bloody message left near the magazine shelf?”

Makoto rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“The ‘Bloodbath Fever’ message…? Well… yeah. Me, Maizono, and Kirigiri talked about it, but we couldn’t really figure out if Genocide Jack had really wrote that out…”

Celes rolled her eyes.

“Of course she didn’t… Genocide Jack is **dead**. Not even psychopathic serial killers can return from death…”

Kirigiri turned on the gambler sharply. Togami was glaring at her, as well.

“You know who Genocide Jack is?”

Celes raised a hand to her open mouth and looked off to the side dully.

“Apparently, I was the only one who bothered to take Togami up on his challenge in the last round… That’s fine. It was a rather cheap and unimaginative puzzle… That’s why I utterly disregarded it when I attempted my own murder. Togami must have truly been bored to rely on such a trick.”

“Just spit it out…!” Mondo growled impatiently, glaring daggers at Celes. “Which one of us was it?!”

Celes placed her hands on her hips, keeping her gaze averted.

“Touko Fukawa. At least, that is what can be deduced from the case files…”

Makoto, Sayaka, Mondo, and Chihiro were caught off-guard by the revelation. Mukuro remained silent. Kyoko cupped her chin and narrowed her eyes in thought. And Byakuya clicked his tongue in annoyance, looking away from the gambler in aggravation.

“F-Fukawa was Genocide Jack?!” Sayaka gasped in disbelief. Makoto was at a loss for words.

Celes closed her eyes and sighed patiently.

“It’s true. Based on the files… Jack would string up her victims with scissors arranging them in a crucifix. Normally, that wouldn’t have meant anything significant – but then I recalled that scissors **had** come up before, in an earlier trial…”

“The scissors Fukawa used to fight back against Hagakure…” Makoto whispered in shock. At that moment, Celes pulled out the case files in question, opening them up to one of the pictures of the bodies, and showed it to Fujisaki. The scissors themselves were shown in a separate photo on the same page.

“Fujisaki, when you and Ikusaba found those scissors in Fukawa’s room, they looked like this, yes?”

Fujisaki’s eyes shot wide open in disbelief as he recognized the scissors.

“Th-They’re exactly the same…!” He gasped.

Togami grunted in annoyance.

“I see, so you **did** abscond with the file… I wondered why it wasn’t in the archives. What a droll way to end such an enticing mystery… I hope you’re happy with yourself.”

“It was garbage, and you know it.” Celes deadpanned. “If I never worked it out, Naegi-kun or Kirigiri would have. I’m disappointed you actually pushed your luck… After the Hell you put me through, I would have thought you smarter than that.”

Feeling all eyes on him, Togami rolled his eyes and crossed his arms stubbornly.

“… Very well, I’ll concede this round. I did wake up for a few moments while Oogami was on the floor. She wasn’t moving, and she didn’t respond to my movements. I figured it was such an open-and-shut case, and I was so utterly **bored** just thinking about it. So I took it upon myself to use a trick that Celes wasted. It fitted the state of the room – an infamous serial killer going all-out against the purportedly strongest person in the world! You all would have been scratching your heads over it for at least a little while…”

Kyoko latched onto a particular phrase, gazing sharply at the heir.

“The state of the room… I’d like to hear a little bit more about what you saw during that time.”

Togami sniffed imperiously.

“What’s there to tell? Aside from the sealed room not being created yet, and the lack of blood trails on the floor, it appeared just as you all found it.”

“Even the bloodstain behind the chair, near the locker?” Kirigiri pressed. Togami arched an eyebrow inquisitively.

“Yes, even that stain was present… All I did… was take some of Oogami’s blood and write out Genocide Jack’s thrilling calling card. That was all I had time for. By the time I finished writing out the message and started contemplating what to do next, I was attacked from my blind spot yet again.”

Makoto clenched a fist in frustration.

“S-So… you didn’t see anyone else in the room, but you were still attacked…?”

Togami crossed his arms, fixing the luckster with a stern gaze.

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t question my flawless testimony… If there was one mistake I made, it was that I never bothered to look around the **entire** room before I set to work on spicing things up. I neglected to check behind the pool table, for one – if someone was behind there, they could have snuck around while I worked near the magazine shelf.”

“What about the locker?” Kirigiri pressed on that part next. Togami scoffed.

“I had the presence of mind to look that way, at least. The locker was wide open, and not a soul inside. The only possibilities where my attacker came from are behind the pool table, or they entered the room from outside. Again, the sealed room had not been established yet.”

Makoto frowned as he considered all of Togami’s testimony. There wasn’t a whole lot to go off of… It **did** confirm the progression of the state of the crime scene, at least. Sometime after Togami was captured and brought up to the rec room, Oogami fought with someone. That struggle left weapons and bloodstains scattered around the room – of particular note, the bloodstain between the locker and the seat where Oogami was eventually found sitting in. Oogami had also collapsed on the floor by the pool table, as he suspected. Heck, even Fujisaki had said it – Togami’s testimony backed it up. 

It was still murky… but they were slowly making sense of what happened. It really would help if Ikusaba would open up to them…

Kirigiri opened her eyes calmly as she cupped her chin.

“Alright… Assuming Togami’s telling the truth, that’s likely the most we’ll get from him. I’d like to hear from the rest of you, now.” She lowered her arms and looked around at all of them in turn.

“Kirigiri…!” Sayaka exploded in frustration.

“The hell?! You’re just gonna take that prick at his word?!” Mondo growled lowly, raising a twitching hand. Kyoko’s eyes glared back at him coldly.

“Unless you have a piece of testimony or evidence that contradicts him, we have no choice but to take his word for now.” Seeing that the biker wasn’t going to back down easily, she sighed breezily and ran a hand through her hair. “… Fujisaki, where did you find Oogami again, when you first encountered her?”

Fujisaki tapped his fingers together nervously.

“W-Well, um… Sh-She was on the floor… b-by the pool table…”

Kirigiri arched an eyebrow inquisitively.

“And just out of curiosity, did you see the ‘Bloodbath Fever’ message on the floor? Any time before you came to retrieve us?” She clarified.

Fujisaki’s brows knit together as he tried to think on it really hard. Eventually, he bowed his head sorrowfully.

“I-I’m sorry… I was so focused on Oogami and Togami…” The programmer then clasped his hands together as he adopted a surprised and energetic look on his face. “… Oh…! But I think Togami’s position changed after I went to get the protein! He was lying on his back when I first found Oogami, but then lying face-down when I came back...!”

Kirigiri smiled softly at the programmer, and then directed a pointed look at Oowada. The biker rubbed the back of his head and grunted in acceptance. Kirigiri crossed her arms once again.

“Now, what about the rest of you? Oogami, Togami, and Fujisaki are all accounted for, to varying degrees. We assume Ikusaba is Oogami and Togami’s assailant, but that’s still not confirmed. What about the rest of you? Did anyone go to Oogami’s requested meeting?”

She was met with silence for several painfully long moments. Celes eventually cupped a hand over her mouth as she looked to the side disinterestedly.

“I was with Naegi-kun the whole time, so I regret to inform I did not even hear of the meeting until after the murder… But I will confess that I found I received a note, just like all of you.”

Makoto nodded slowly, confirming they had alibis. Sayaka hugged herself and looked down dejectedly.

“I wanted to go… but I had a bad feeling about it all, so I didn’t…” She looked up, feeling all their eyes on her. “I wanted to go up to the music room, but that would take me past the rec room, so I stayed in the cafeteria instead…”

Kirigiri nodded at the idol’s testimony.

“Like Maizono, I chose not to go. The meeting didn’t seem to serve any point. I stayed in my room, though I did step out for a little while, and that was when Fujisaki found me.”

Mondo gritted his teeth and rubbed the back of his head as he felt all eyes on him. He was the last one, and he knew it.

“I don’t have a fucking alibi, okay? I didn’t even know there was a meeting time…”

Makoto blinked in astonishment.

“Didn’t you receive a note, too?”

Mondo clenched his fists at his side and looked down.

“Well, yeah! But all mine said… was to look after Fujisaki and the rest of you guys! She said she was gonna resolve everything, so I trusted her! Nobody was strong enough to take her down in a fair one-on-one fight, but I guess that bitch over there got the jump on her!” He snarled towards Ikusaba. He then raised a twitching hand and glared at all of them. “You gonna doubt me over that bitch?! Huh?!”

Makoto waved his hands peacefully.

“N-N-No, no…!” He didn’t doubt Mondo trusted Sakura… But this was a Class Trial. They had to listen to every piece of testimony and comb over every piece of evidence… They had to.

Ikusaba still wasn’t talking… And if anything, she looked more hollow and empty inside. If the luckster only knew how much sway he was having, intentionally or otherwise…

Kyoko rubbed her chin and narrowed her eyes at the floor.

“Alibis and testimonies aren’t enough. I didn’t want to jump to this too soon, but I think we need to determine Oogami’s cause of death. If we can determine that… maybe other things will fall into place.”

_‘Oogami’s cause of death…’_ Makoto echoed in his mind.

Mondo narrowed his eyes as he clenched his fists again.

“Are you fucking serious…?! You **saw** the damn murder weapons!” The biker hissed, raising a twitching hand furiously. “Pick one, it doesn’t matter! Oogami **died** on those weapons! **It was fucking blood loss**!”

Celes rolled her eyes exasperatedly.

“Yes, we **know** they are the **likely** cause of death… But if we get this wrong, only the killer is making it out of this trial alive. We cannot afford to get this wrong.”

A vein bulged on Mondo’s forehead as he glared at the gambler coldly.

“I don’t want to hear all this godamn **“sympathy”** coming from a **bitch** that tried to get us all killed!”

Celes narrowed her eyes dangerously at the biker’s hostility. She would not stoop to his level, because she knew he had a right to be pissed about what she did… But this was just petty.

Makoto opened his mouth to try and defuse the tension. However…

“Just stop it already…” Mukuro had her head bowed, shielding her gaze and whatever emotions she had from everybody. “I… I did it. I killed Oogami. There’s no other possibility!”

“I-Ikusaba…!” Makoto cried out in protest. Togami crossed his arms and glared at the soldier calculatingly.

“So, the truth finally comes out…”

“You **bitch**!” Mondo growled lowly, glaring daggers at her.

The rest were warily silent as Mukuro rested her hands on the witness stand to steady herself. She then slowly raised her head up, her eyes packing as much heat as Mondo’s were.

“I-I hope you’re all **happy** …!” Mukuro hissed venomously. “Oogami might have started all this, but you guys weren’t any better… I’d have left all of you to die, too, if it wasn’t for…”

The soldier cast a longing look over at Makoto before shaking her head bitterly and bowing her head again. Kyoko stared at Mukuro, mouth agape in shock.

“Oogami…? What… do you mean by that…?”

“Y-Yeah…” Sayaka mumbled, also in shock. “O-Oogami wouldn’t… start anything…”

The Ultimate Fighter was not antagonistic, not in the slightest. Celes placed her hands on her hips and stared at the soldier speculatively.

“We were under the assumption the trigger had been that note from Monokuma, which told us about you… Are you telling us there was something else?”

Mukuro barked out a bitter, pained laugh. She didn’t raise her head, though.

“Y-You think Monokuma would throw away a soldier like that?!” The dark-haired girl’s shook hysterically. “N-Not that I can expect much from you guys… in the first place…! Oogami wrote those notes to manipulate you! Sh-She was… going to kill…! Why **else** do you think she arranged for a meeting so soon?! She **knew** you guys weren’t going to be in the mood! All she needed was one idiot to waltz in, and it’d all be over!”

“I-Idiot…?” Fujisaki echoed in disbelief, shaking his head tearfully in denial.

Mukuro threw her hands up in the air exasperatedly.

“Or who knows? Maybe Fujisaki was the intended victim, ‘cause of the later meeting time!” She raised her head with narrowed eyes. “I don’t care about a dead woman’s schemes! She’s dead, and she can’t hurt Naegi-kun anymore! That’s all that matters!”

Paradoxically, Makoto and Sayaka’s eyes softened at the soldier’s hysterical ranting, as well as reflected hurt. If she’d had such doubts, why hadn’t she come to them?

… Or, well, to Makoto, at least.

“So, you’re confessing to it all, then?” Togami asked archly, to which the soldier nodded stiffly. Proudly.

“I cottoned onto Oogami’s plans to meet up in the rec room, and I made sure to lay my own trap! **I** hauled all those weapons up to the rec room, concealing them in places! **I** captured Togami as a hostage! **I** hid in the locker before Oogami showed up! And **I** got the jump on her, smashing that axe into that bitch’s back after she dropped her guard! It’s obvious how it all played out from there!”

Celes averted her gaze as she thought it over.

“… You struggled with Oogami, and ended up mortally wounding her.” The gambler mused.

Mukuro scowled in agitation.

“I just made one miscalculation… Even when I had the advantages of getting the drop on her and having all those weapons at my disposal, Oogami still… knocked me out for a bit…” The soldier admitted uncomfortably. She then shook her head and glared at Togami. “Lucky for me, Togami’s an arrogant ass, and missed the fact I was there! He was too set on forging evidence to notice I was there… And he didn’t expect a thing when I knocked him the hell out **again** …”

Togami bared his teeth in frustration at the jab, but stayed his tongue. He reasoned the words of a defeated dog shouldn’t bother him – she was going to be executed anyway. Why give her the satisfaction of getting a rise out of him?

Kyoko cupped her chin and stared down at the floor.

“So you’re admitting to all of this… However, what about the sealed room? We know Oogami didn’t die immediately from those mortal wounds. Fujisaki confirmed it.”

Mukuro rolled her eyes in annoyance.

“So annoying…” The soldier growled in frustration. “I-I noticed… Fujisaki g-going in there after I knocked Togami out! So I moved into finish the job!”

“But Oogami sealed the room.” The mysterious girl reiterated, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes.

“What’s the point in going to all the trouble of busting the door down?” Mukuro deadpanned, throwing Kyoko for a loop. “She was gonna bleed out without medical attention. I just let the bitch die slowly.”

An uneasy silence filled the room as the Ultimate Soldier gave her reasoning. Despite the hysterics she’d shown up until this point, this actually sounded very plausible. But it was definitely coldhearted… and cruel… Beyond anything they could have imagined.

_‘Ikusaba, what happened to you…?’_ Makoto thought to himself in dismay. He knew the others’ cruelty had taken a toll on her, but he never expected her to be so… vicious…

So much of what she was saying didn’t make sense. Like Oogami writing the notes that started this whole mess. Oogami… wouldn’t do that… The fighter must have had a plan, or at least a prayer – but it couldn’t have been anything like Ikusaba was ranting about! Oogami wanted to fight the Mastermind! She wouldn’t have wanted… **this** … for Ikusaba…!

“See?!” Mondo raged as he pointed at Mukuro accusingly. “ **That’s** what I’m talking about! Why the hell should we give her a chance again?! Or ‘think things over’?!”

As the biker demanded an answer, the rest of them remained silent for various reasons. Mukuro simply had nothing more to stay, sticking her nose up proudly, almost. Makoto, Sayaka, and Chihiro were trying to wrestle through the hurt and honest confusion… And Byakuya, Celes, and Kyoko were contemplative, concealing their emotions much better than everyone else.

“… If all of this is true…” Celes supposed, glancing over at the soldier with focused eyes. “Then why confess now? You could have spared a lot of trouble, getting it out of the way during the investigation, but you said **nothing**.”

Mukuro scoffed condescendingly.

“Do I **have** to repeat myself?! I said I’d leave all of you to die no problem…” The dark-haired girl glanced over to the luckster, conflicted. “… B-But killing Naegi-kun was **never** on the agenda… I…! I did all of this for **him**! The rest of you can go die in a fire for all I care!”

Makoto’s heart seized up within himself as Mukuro brought that part up again. This… Mukuro really was confessing all of this, believing with every fiber of her being that she was the murderer. This wasn’t some attempt to throw them off-track, some spiteful trick to get them to vote incorrectly… She **believed** this… She… She **did** these things – at the very least in regards to attacking Oogami and knocking Togami out…

Makoto clenched a fist and looked down in anguish.

_‘Why, Ikusaba…? I’m not worth… protecting this **ferociously** …’ _The luckster thought to himself morosely.

And he really believed that. For all his optimism, he had serious doubts about his own capabilities. And ultimately, that’s what kept him from speaking out now. Makoto… blamed himself for this. That Mukuro went this far.

“Naegi.” Garnering his attention, Kirigiri locked eyes with the disheartened boy. “You can’t give up now. I know how this looks… But now more than ever, we need that unrelenting strength of yours. Ikusaba’s confession matches a lot of what we know, but we have to look at this with detached eyes. There are parts that… don’t add up. And if there’s any doubts at all, it’s our job to chase them down until none remain. We only get one shot. No matter how painful or elusive it is, we **have** to find the truth. That’s how… Class Trials work.”

Makoto closed his eyes and released a shaky, shuddering breath.

_‘… Kirigiri’s right. I can’t stop now! I promised I would save you, Ikusaba… and I’m gonna keep that promise…!’_ The luckster snapped his eyes open with renewed vigor and determination. “Kirigiri’s right! I’m not going to run away! We’re going to get to the bottom of this, **together**!”

Mukuro’s brow creased in confusion as she looked to him.

“N-Naegi-kun…? Wh-What is there left to investigate…? I confessed…!”

Makoto shook his head firmly.

“Ikusaba, I made a promise that I would save you. I’m not gonna back down now!” He snapped back with determination. He didn’t break stride even as the soldier’s breath hitched. “You wanna know why the cause of death is so important?! It’s not in the Monokuma File! All it tells us is Oogami’s external injuries!”

Mondo scoffed loudly.

“So?! If that’s all that was in there, that’s all that matters!”

Kyoko shook her head, cupping her chin.

“No. Recall Ishimaru’s murder – the Monokuma File also omitted the cause of death at that time, and it became a crucial piece of information. It’s the same now.”

Togami arched an eyebrow inquisitively.

“Even so… What do you propose is left? There was nothing else suspicious at the crime scene, was there?”

Makoto rubbed his chin in thought.

“The Monokuma File mentioned Oogami vomited blood… Maybe that had something to do with it?”

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” Mondo raged, raising a twitching hand. “All those wounds, and **you’re** concerned about vomited blood?! Ain’t it natural to do that when you got all those injuries?!”

“Perhaps…” Kirigiri allowed. “But so long as the possibility exists, we should explore it to the fullest.”

“The possibility for what?!” Mondo fired back. “Hell, for all we know, she coulda bit her cheek or tongue at some point when she struggled with Ikusaba!”

“If she’d just bitten herself, the File wouldn’t have said ‘vomited blood’…” Kirigiri pointed out. “Furthermore, there aren’t any cuts or bite wounds inside her mouth.”

Sayaka shivered.

“I still can’t believe you examined Oogami **that** closely… I could never do that…”

“If it’s for the sake of solving mysteries, I’ll do almost anything.” The mysterious girl shrugged nonchalantly.

Celes’s hands were on her hips again.

“Still, the question remains – if she didn’t bite herself, what **did** make her puke the blood…?”

“It would have to be something that occurred internally. Chances are... Sakura Oogami was murdered **by poisoning** …” Togami smirked as he got the gist of what both Naegi and Kirigiri were driving at.

Fujisaki’s eyes widened in horror.

“P-P- **Poisoned**?!” The programmer gaped.

Togami nodded stiffly.

“Precisely! And don’t waste your time questioning it – after all, **I’m** the one who reached that conclusion!”

Mondo gritted his teeth and shook his fist at the heir.

“Poisoned?! That’s stupid!”

“Don’t believe it? Then allow me to explain just how the culprit got Oogami to take the poison...” Togami sniped back at the biker, which only raised his ire.

“ **You want me to smash your face in** , **dumbass**?!”

“Let’s get started…” Togami ignored Oowada’s murderous rage. “The key to this mystery lay in the chemistry lab on the fourth floor… There is a large cabinet in that lab in which a plethora of chemicals and reagents are stored. Fujisaki.”

The programmer shook like a leaf as the heir addressed him harshly. At the heir’s extended hand, Fujisaki reluctantly handed over the bottle he’d fetched from Cabinet C.

“I found **this** in there…” Togami continued without missing a beat. He ignored the withering looks he got from Celes and Mondo for usurping a discovery that was clearly Chihiro’s. “It’s not a particularly potent poison, but if you ingest enough, you’ll die well enough. But the properties of the poison are irrelevant. What matters is where I found this container.”

Makoto’s brow furrowed.

“Where you found the poison...?”

“The cabinets are divided into three sections – A, B, and C. A contains nutrients; B contains reagents; and C contains hazardous chemicals.” Togami explained thoroughly.

“Th-Then you found that container in Cabinet C…?” Sayaka queried.

Togami chuckled at the response.

“Indeed… **this** container was in Cabinet C… Fujisaki fetched it when he was bothered by the contents of the bottle.”

“Wh-What bothered you about the contents, Fujisaki…?” Sayaka asked of the programmer, who poked his index fingers together nervously.

“I-I… I still don’t know…” The boy hung his head in shame. “I feel like I’d seen it somewhere before, but…”

Togami scoffed loudly.

“You **still** haven’t figured it out? Here. Allow me to give you a hint.” Abruptly, Togami opened the bottle… and drank some of the contents.

“T-Togami?!” Makoto yelped, mirrored by Sayaka, Mukuro, Chihiro, and Mondo recoiling in shock. Even Celes’s eyebrows rose up curiously at the sudden act.

Only Kirigiri seemed unaffected by the demonstration.

“Disgusting…” Togami grimaced as he pulled back the bottle from his lips and capped it.

“Wh-Why would you…?!” Fujisaki cried out in distress.

“We need to make him throw up that poison fast!” Sayaka yelled in alarm.

Togami snickered.

“That taste **does** make me want to vomit… High quality, my ass…”

“The **hell** are you talkin’ about?!” Mondo snapped.

“ **Protein**. What else?” Togami deadpanned.

Makoto’s brow furrowed worse in confusion.

“Protein…?”

Kirigiri narrowed her eyes and held out her hand.

“Togami, could I see that bottle, please?”

“Certainly, by all means…” Togami smirked. In short order, he passed her the bottle, and Kirigiri scooped out a little bit of the powder with her finger, tasting it for herself.

“This **is** protein…” Kirigiri revealed. Makoto reeled back in shock.

“Huh?!”

“Indeed, there wasn’t poison in that bottle, but protein powder. Conversely… where did the poison that **should have been** in that bottle end up?” The heir asked archly.

Celes’s eyebrows knitted together.

“I would imagine… inside a bottle of protein…”

Togami wagged a finger arrogantly.

“Try again. Not **a** bottle, but **the only bottle left on the shelf**!” The heir revealed. “While other nutrients were there, I didn’t see a single bottle of protein remaining when I examined Cabinet A. I thought that rather curious, considering Oogami had praised that dreck. It all fell into place when I recalled that Fujisaki **recognized** the contents of that poison bottle… What’s more, removing the other bottles of protein from the shelf ensures that Oogami would receive the poisoned bottle!”

Makoto nodded slowly as he processed this.

“I-It makes sense… Fujisaki wouldn’t recognize poison…” The luckster mused.

“And Fujisaki-kun **did** start working out with Oogami and Oowada…” Sayaka added thoughtfully. “Oogami must have had him try the protein at least once… She really sung high praises about it…”

Fujisaki nodded sadly.

“Y-Yeah… She did… B-But… the protein bottle… really had…?” He trailed off in horror. Mondo gritted his teeth.

“ **Like hell**! Where’s your proof?! I ain’t ever heard of a protein bottle ever comin’ up in the investigation…!”

“There **was** one there, however. It disappeared shortly after the investigation began.” Kirigiri sharply reproached the biker. “And what’s more, did you forget Fujisaki testified he went to give Oogami the protein when she asked for it…?”

Mondo floundered as the mysterious girl brought this up. His rage instantly dried up.

“Th-That…!” He struggled for a comeback.

Togami sneered at Oowada’s dismay.

“Do you see now? The protein powder was in the poison container, and the poison was in the protein container! With that knowledge… it’s **painfully** easy to determine who poisoned Oogami… After all, the killer left clear footprints! There was a spilled bottle of poison in front of the shelves, and I took the liberty of inspecting Fujisaki’s shoes… He definitely left those set of footprints. **Only Fujisaki** could have swapped the contents of those bottles!”

Fujisaki paled.

“I…It was me…? I poisoned her…?” The programmer whispered in horror.

This line of logic seemed to stir Mondo’s rage back up.

“ **You’re blaming Fujisaki now**?!” Mondo slammed his fist down on the witness stand and glaring daggers at Togami as he snarled. “Blurt out the first thing that springs to mind, why don’t ya?!”

Strangely enough, Mondo wasn’t the only one to get worked up.

“Th-That’s ridiculous…!” Mukuro fumed. “Th-Th-There’s no way **poison** was…!”

Togami pointed at both of them arrogantly.

“If Fujisaki was the killer, everything falls into place! Ikusaba **tried** to kill Oogami, but she survived! Fujisaki, stumbling across her, saw his chance and **just** like Kuwata, stole the kill right from under the would-be perpetrator’s nose! And if Fujisaki was the culprit, that would explain Oowada’s rabid dog antics with regards to Ikusaba being the culprit! Somehow, he **knows** Fujisaki is the culprit!”

“ **What’d you say** , **douchebag**?!” Mondo bellowed savagely, the witness stand creaking under the force of the slam of his fist.

Mukuro paled as she processed the heir’s words. She vigorously shook her head in denial.

“N-N-No…! **I killed Oogami**! **Why** can’t you understand that?!”

Makoto looked down in dismay.

“I – I can’t believe that…”

“What’s so unbelievable about it?” Togami whirled on the luckster angrily.

“Oogami and Fujisaki were good friends…” Makoto rationalized. “Plus, Fujisaki’s so… gentle… He’d **never** think to poison someone, much less a friend!”

Togami smirked.

“That friendship is **exactly** what gave him this chance. Oogami wouldn’t bat at an eye at protein given to her by her good friend Fujisaki. Fujisaki **exploited** their so-called friendship! He used it to deceive the victim, Oogami, and continued using it to deceive us, as well! That was one hell of a dirty trick you pulled, Fujisaki!”

The programmer wilted under the heated glare he received from the Togami heir. He shook like a leaf as he tried to stutter out denials. Kirigiri sharply spoke up.

“Hold on! I can’t… accept that…”

Togami scoffed at the mysterious girl.

“Don’t tell me **you’ve** bought into this whole ‘he wouldn’t kill his friend’ nonsense, too? Have you **still** not gotten it through your thick skulls? This game does **not** operate on your ‘ideals.’ Naïve dogmas like friendship hold no ground here. This is a game of wits – of securing the spot atop the hill. There’s **not one person** who would sacrifice himself for another. In the end, every man thinks only of himself. Just as that **boy**... sacrificed Oogami for his own sake…” Togami spat out coldly. Kirigiri crossed her arms dubiously.

“Be that as it may… I still can’t accept it…”

“You’re **still** holding out?” Togami snorted derisively. Kirigiri calmly closed her eyes.

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not being sentimental here… I simply… can’t accept that when certain questions have been left unanswered…”

“Questions? Such as?” The heir demanded.

Kirigiri cupped her chin thoughtfully.

“You mentioned a ‘spill’ in front of the chem lab shelves… Would you mind showing me what it looked like?” Narrowing his eyes at the challenge, Togami produced the sketch that Fujisaki drew. Kirigiri studied it with a shrewd eye. She nodded slowly after a few moments. “And I take it you verified the size and shape of the prints were a match for Fujisaki’s shoes…?”

Togami growled testily.

“What do you take me for?! Of course I checked!” The heir crossed his arms and averted his gaze in annoyance. He sneered at the lilac-haired girl out of the corner of his eye. “The soles of Fujisaki’s shoes were covered in the powder, as well!”

“The soles… Anywhere else on the shoes?” Kirigiri asked sharply.

“No!” Togami denied with a huff. “What is with all these incessant questions?! Fujisaki is clearly the only one who’s been near the chem lab shelves! At least around the time of the murder!”

Kirigiri smirked at the confirmation.

“And I’m not denying Fujisaki brought the bottle with poison…”

Makoto’s brow furrowed as he seemed to grasp where exactly Kirigiri was driving them with all these questions. It was still a little hazy, but…

“Just the soles… But if there was a spill like that, you’d think some of it would end up on the top or the sides of the shoes, if Fujisaki dropped the bottle in front of the shelves…”

Fujisaki hugged himself and stared tearfully at the luckster.

“I-I didn’t drop that…! It was already spilled when I got there!”

Sayaka smiled consolingly at the programmer.

“And Makoto wasn’t accusing you, Fujisaki-kun… He was just confirming your innocence.”

“That’s not what it sounds like to me…” Mondo growled lowly.

Togami hissed at their persistent denials.

“What in the world gives that impression?! I checked everybody’s shoes during the investigation… **no one** had powder on the top or sides of their shoes!”

“No one **alive** does…” Kirigiri corrected the heir. “Togami, we’re not rejecting the truth that Fujisaki **brought Oogami the poison** …”

Mondo couldn’t contain himself anymore. He snarled at Kirigiri.

“The **hell** I’m letting that slide! You’re making Fujisaki out to be the killer, and I won’t stand for it! **Ikusaba’s the killer** , **end of story**!”

Despite it being to her detriment, Mukuro firmly agreed with the biker.

“Fujisaki doesn’t have the heart of a killer…! You **all** should know this!”

Kyoko glared right back at them. She then glanced over at Naegi coolly.

“Naegi-kun… I don’t think they’ll listen to anyone else. Would you mind explaining?”

Makoto clenched his fist in aggravation, nodding firmly.

“Guys…! Oogami had powder **on her shoe**! That means, at some point, she was up in the chem lab!”

Mondo and Mukuro went very still as the luckster brought up this information. Mukuro’s brow furrowed in confusion.

“B-But… that can’t be! Oogami was…” She trailed off, gritting her teeth in frustration as she got the same revelation as Oowada did.

Kirigiri nodded at their shared revelation.

“Isn’t it easier to assume Oogami switched the contents of the bottles herself? After all. If she spilled that bottle in front of the shelves after the switch, doesn’t that make it easier to prove Fujisaki’s innocence, despite him being a technical ‘accomplice’?”

Togami bit at his nails nervously as this new theory was proposed.

“Oogami… **swapped the bottles’ contents herself**? **Why**?!” The heir demanded heatedly. “It’s as if you’re implying…”

“Oogami committed suicide…” Makoto looked down dejectedly as the truth hit him like a bullet train. “I… I think I get it now… Oogami’s plan. The **real** reason she created that sealed room… It all falls into place…”

Kyoko arched an eyebrow inquisitively.

“Do you mind explaining it for everyone else?”

The luckster swallowed thickly as he screwed his eyes shut painfully.

“… To start, I don’t know if Oogami **intended** to die… There’s no possible way I’d know that.” The brunet muttered quietly. “I do know, however, she at least considered the possibility… Why else swap the bottles’ contents? Why not take the poison with her? … Because she suspected Ikusaba was going to fight her. If the bottle got smashed during the struggle, it would’ve made it hard to save Ikusaba if the worst came to pass.”

“Hypothetically, that could be another reason Oogami didn’t bring it with her – she didn’t know what was going to happen. She was only creating **contingencies**.” Kirigiri further elaborated for everyone.

Makoto opened his eyes and gazed down with a sorrowful, broken expression.

“Think about it, guys. Oogami **received** the poison from Fujisaki – she was still alive! She… She probably knew she was going to die when Fujisaki found her, but Oogami wanted to die on **her** terms! Oogami wanted to die in such a way that it’d save **all** of us. Including Ikusaba. So she asked Fujisaki to go get us. Created the sealed room. And… she ingested the poison herself!”

Kirigiri crossed her arms and looked around the room disapprovingly, before they landed on Oowada, giving him the sharpest glare of all.

“However, something unexpected happened after we discovered Oogami’s body. The protein bottle went missing. **Somebody** wanted to steer us off the right track for reasons unknown. I suspect they wanted to avoid us realizing that Fujisaki had brought Oogami poison, rather than protein… It makes sense – in most scenarios, the one who serves the poison is often the culprit, and if you cared about that person enough you would want them to live… But that was **not** the case here! Fujisaki was **not** the murderer!”

“Gurgh!” The biker tensed up at the accusation, and had no rebuttal for it.

Celes narrowed her eyes.

“Although, that doesn’t quite explain Ikusaba’s temperament… Why go so far as to insist she’s the killer, even after we go to prove the real murder method?”

Makoto rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“I think… I think only Ikusaba could tell us that…” He turned to the soldier imploringly. “Ikusaba… It’s okay. You don’t have to protect me anymore! Can you… Can you tell us everything, please?”

Mukuro, pale as a ghost took a step back, looking at all of them wildly. She was like a trapped animal.

“Y-Y-You’re all lying…! Y-You even roped Naegi-kun into this!” She clenched her eyes shut tightly and shook her head fiercely. “ **Oogami tried killing all of us**! Why can’t you understand that?! Naegi-kun… please… believe me…!”

The soldier glanced at him with such a broken, pleading stare. His heart really went out to her, and he wished that belief in this case wasn’t such an awful thing… Because the worst part was, he **did** believe her. It was why he was fighting so hard to save her… why Oogami had fought so hard. Somehow, he had to make her see that.

Togami was still biting at his nails as he continued to process everything.

“Setting Ikusaba’s nonsense aside… Kirigiri, you’re saying… that Oowada took the protein bottle from the scene so that we couldn’t confirm its contents…? That he would have killed all of us – including himself! – just because he thought Fujisaki poisoned Oogami?!”

Kirigiri raised an eyebrow expectantly.

“It adds up, doesn’t it? Oowada is normally hotheaded, but he was much more personally invested in this case, and kept trying to steer us toward Ikusaba as the culprit… Even if Oogami did die, I can’t imagine him being this emotional if Fujisaki wasn’t **somehow** involved, and Oowada didn’t know it.”

Mondo squeezed his eyes shut and shook his fist in anguish, which more or less confirmed his guilt. Togami shook his head in bewilderment.

“… H-How… How did you and Naegi… reach that conclusion… when I was unable to?!”

Makoto blinked owlishly.

“H-Huh? Well, um…” He trailed off uncertainly. Kirigiri just smirked.

“You still don’t get it? Gain and loss are not the only criteria humans use to make decisions – that’s what makes them so complex. You don’t understand that. And that’s why you couldn’t reach the truth.”

Togami stared at her, utterly bewildered.

“Khh…nngh!”

“I warned you, didn’t I? That your lack of consideration for human emotion would come back to haunt you…” Kirigiri crossed her arms smugly.

Togami looked down, continuing to grapple with these revelations. Oowada. Oogami. Even Ikusaba… All of them, working towards goals that didn’t benefit them in the least! What the hell was he supposed to say in the face of that?

“ **Show me the proof**!

… Apparently, Ikusaba could still find it within herself to deny everything. She looked around at them wildly, vindictively.

“If you can’t p-prove Oogami p-planned all this…! Th-Then **I’m** the real killer, and **you’re** all going to die!” She cried out hysterically. She leaned forward desperately. “D-Do you really want to drag Naegi-kun down w-with you?!”

Makoto clenched a fist in frustration. Mukuro was the last holdout… While they could, theoretically, vote now, Makoto didn’t want to leave her behind. Mukuro needed something more definitive to come to grips with everything… But what was left?

As the luckster traded concerned glances with his classmates over Mukuro’s continued denials, Chihiro feebly got everyone’s attention.

“I-I-Ikusaba…?”

“ **What**?!” The dark-haired girl screeched, practically coming apart at the seams.

The programmer shook nervously, but he stood his ground.

“Oogami **did** leave behind a message for you… I-It was in Cabinet A, when I went to get the protein for her…!”

Mukuro froze at this.

“A message…?”

Fujisaki brought a folded paper with Mukuro’s name on it out from his pocket, and just as he did, Monokuma spoke up after all that time.

“ **Where did you get that**?!?!” The bear raged, standing up on his throne.

Kirigiri pointed at the bear demandingly.

“You will **not** interfere! Fujisaki discovered it, and we have the right to go over it! Or do you intend to obstruct a fair and impartial investigation?”

The bear recoiled at the authority in the mysterious girl’s voice before uneasily complying. He growled in dissatisfaction and sat back down.

“U-Um… Naegi…?” Fujisaki bowed his head sorrowfully. “I-I’m sorry… but… could you…?”

Nodding in understanding, Makoto accepted the folded paper as it was passed to him. He wasn’t in that much better shape to be reading Oogami’s final words… But for everyone’s sake, he would.

_“Ikusaba… I know we haven’t known each other very long, but I would like to think you are a dear friend, all the same. I have something that I must share with you. Though it pains me to tell you in this fashion, it is something I would like you to know. This is… my final wish._

_As you have been made painfully aware, I served under the Puppetmaster as his mole, much like you… The Puppetmaster purposefully kept us ignorant of each other’s existence, but now that I have had time to dwell on this, I believe the true intent was to keep **you** in the dark… You accused me of being an outsider, and you may very well be correct… While my pain may bring him joy, you are much closer to him, and thus, your inevitable destruction would please him much more. _

_I… cannot say for certain why he hates you. But Ikusaba… do not fall for his honeyed lies. You may think you are in it together, but the Puppetmaster had no qualms unmasking you in front of everybody. I suspect he is also behind the recent affair, where our friends turned on you. Consider the fact you were isolated with them, and away from Naegi-kun and myself. When you were alone with the two of us, without influence from the Puppetmaster, did we hurt you? Did Naegi-kun not try to reach you, after you were chased away by our friends?_

_… I will not make excuses for the others, Ikusaba. You have every right to be angry with them. But Ikusaba… we are all victims of the Puppetmaster. That is why I wanted all of us to meet – to address this fundamental truth. They misunderstand because the Puppetmaster finds more ways to prevent you from speaking out. Haven’t you realized by now? The further you are driven from our friends, the closer you are to him – the very person who betrayed you in the first place. He did not care to answer you when you called, no matter how long you waited. He only cared about your pain and suffering, and this has not changed._

_Doubt me if you must, but Ikusaba, Naegi-kun will not give up on you. And he will not give up on the others, either. Even if I fail to mend those bridges for you… he will not fail. If there is one similarity between us, it is our faith in Naegi-kun and his pure, strong heart. I have faith… that after I have tackled the darkness that clings to you, after I have endured the assault of your anguish, your hatred, Naegi-kun will save you._

_Even if it costs me my life… I will endure everything you throw at me, Ikusaba. I will **not** die. Not by your hand. Not by anyone else’s but my own. If I have the strength to save both our lives… rest assured, I will tell you all of this in person. If I am honest… I would much prefer it that way. _

_Yet I am painfully aware of my own limitations… In the end, I will prioritize your life over my own. Because you are **worth** saving, Ikusaba. Naegi-kun sees that. I see that. And rest assured, we will make the others see that, as well. _

_Ikusaba… you once told me that the Puppetmaster is the only one to have accepted you, to have never let you down. But Ikusaba… I cannot help but see a glaring contradiction in that belief. If they never let you down, they wouldn’t have tried to break you, to transform you into something you are not. No matter your relationship with them, that does not excuse that they **hurt** you. And I shall not abide this… Neither shall Naegi-kun. **You have not lost us**. I promise you, those bonds remain strong. Unwavering._

_As a traitor myself, I know all too well how you feel. I resigned myself to their hatred and resentment – after all, I brought it upon myself with my weakness… I had every intention of graciously accepting any and all ill will directed at me. I believed that to be my way of atoning for my betrayal… but I was naïve. The Puppetmaster not only dragged my name through the mud, but yours, as well. This created a situation where I alone was insufficient to handle the fractures growing in our ranks. And that was the point of revealing your betrayal – the Puppetmaster saw that with my willing confession, I would be able to win back the trust and loyalty between our friends… He could not allow that. The fear and doubt, discord and dissonance that ousting you invited… He predicted it would result in more murder._

_… Yet I also realize I hurt you, Ikusaba, and for that… I deeply apologize. The responsibility for all of this falls on **my** shoulders. If I had even an inkling that you were a mole like me… I would have consulted you before confessing to everyone. I owed it to you, because confessing… was something you wished to do. I could see it in your eyes. Naegi-kun… really does work miracles. _

_This is my responsibility… If someone must die, then let it be me. My death will extinguish the flame of conflict I set before it drives you or anyone else to murder. I offer up my life, to that end. Every one of you is worth that price. You give my sacrifice meaning._

_In closing… I must extend an apology to Fujisaki. I kept this a secret from you because I knew you would try to stop me. I know… that I have asked far too much of you. I am truly sorry… But please, do not feel sorrow… If I am able to put an end to the Puppetmaster’s scheming… If I am able to stop the killing… there is nothing more I could ask for. This is the path I have chosen for myself; this is my atonement. With this note, my Class Trial should end with little difficulty… Fujisaki, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for everything._

_I intend to meet with Kirigiri, Maizono, Celes, Togami, and Oowada… Fujisaki, I know you and Naegi-kun will give Ikusaba a chance, but the others must be shown by action, not word. I believe that by doing so, they will finally come to realize… that we are not enemies destined to despise one another, but **that we are friends – and allies**.... Fujisaki, Ikusaba, Naegi… Everyone. Whatever it takes, I want you to survive, to live alongside one another. _

_You must… live on…”_

Mukuro had long since fallen to her knees. She stared off into space with a petrified, hollow expression. Overwhelming grief and guilt gnawed away at her mind, making her heart heavier and heavier as time passed. But even so, she absorbed every word as Makoto read them… allowed them to simmer within her until they reached a boiling point.

This… This was the real Sakura Oogami. The very woman she tried to kill with such hatred and malice… The woman she reviled… The woman she hated so passionately, who stole Naegi-kun away with twisted lies and ‘friends’ that were even more cruel and unforgiving…

People who had tried reaching out to her… who acknowledged her sins, but kept digging for the truth…

“What have I done…?” Mukuro whispered hoarsely long after Makoto had concluded. She stayed rooted on her knees, the life sapped out of her.

Fujisaki was tearing up from where he was standing by Togami.

“O-Oogami…!” The programmer choked out emotionally.

Mondo violently punched his witness stand. The sturdy structure held impressively, but Makoto swore it could have cracked under that amount of force…

“D-Damnit… **Damnit**!” The biker howled as tears pricked at his own eyes. “ **Are you telling me the note I got was a fake suicide note**?!”

At everyone’s perplexed glances, save for Ikusaba who was still very much lost and numb to the world, Monokuma snickered at the biker’s anger and grief.

“You mad?!” The bear cackled gleefully.

“O-Oowada-kun…?” Sayaka asked gently. Mondo bowed his head in shame, clenching his fists in anguish.

“… The note I got… was pretty much what I said earlier…” The biker breathed unsteadily. Tears streamed down his cheek as he raised his head and looked at everyone. “… But it begged me to save Fujisaki! It… It said Oogami was gonna resolve everything… But it also said if she wasn’t able to, she was at least gonna save Fujisaki by tricking him with an assisted suicide! How the hell could I sentence the kid to death when I promised I’d protect him?! A man’s word is his bond! I **promised**! And… I nearly screwed it all up again…!”

The biker leaned over, panting. Then he screamed in pure anguish at what he’d nearly done. Makoto, Sayaka, and Chihiro looked to him sympathetically, while Celes narrowed her eyes at Monokuma.

“Playing at your tricks again, are we…?”

Monokuma waved her off dismissively.

“Mehhh! I hardly did a thing! Maybe I swapped out that note for the meeting for that piece of crap, but so what?! It’s not like I signed Oogami’s signature! It’s not like I planted ‘fake evidence’! **Oowada’s** the one who jumped the gun, so **Oowada’s** the one you should hate! I’m totally in the clear! Hmph!”

Makoto shook with rage at this.

“What are you saying?! What you did was **inexcusable**!”

Monokuma snickered as the accusations kept on coming.

“Inexcusable? I’ll tell ya what’s inexcusable~… Short-troopers that don’t do their damn jobs!” The bear rubbed the back of his head bashfully. “If Ikusaba had done her **job** , you all wouldn’t have found that troublesome will Oogami left behind… Who knew that gorilla would hide that thing in Cabinet A of all places?! Guess that’ll show me to not keep a better eye on her! But I digress~!”

Kirigiri closed her eyes calmly and took a deep breath.

“… She didn’t take her own life out of weakness… Rather, it was the opposite… She did it **because she was strong** … far too strong. That’s what led her to end her own life. She chose death in order to protect us… No normal person… could attain that degree of selflessness… But her strength made it possible for her…”

“Oogami…!” Sayaka and Chihiro both cried out together. Celes closed her eyes and remained reverently silent. Byakuya had calmed himself down and was staring off the side with annoyance. Mondo still couldn’t meet anyone’s eyes.

And Makoto… he was glaring at Monokuma with determination.

Monokuma sighed loudly.

“Okay, okay, okay! Enough with the sappy crap…” The bear giggled childishly. “Hey, that rhymes! … Ahem! Let us proceed to ballot time so we can move on with our lives, huh?! Who will be chosen as the **blackened**?! Will you make the right choice? Or the dreadfully wrong one~?”

It didn’t take long for them to comply. Even Mukuro, who still wasn’t completely ‘there’, ran on instinct and voted accordingly. When the roulette machine fired up, all three faces stopped on Oogami, and officially declared she was guilty.

The bear just sighed exasperatedly when the mood didn’t change at all.

“Jeez! Would it kill you guys to celebrate once in a while?! Four correct verdicts in a row is a real hot streak~!”

Withering glares was all he received for his trouble. The bear moped.

… And then Mukuro spoke up.

“Did… Did I ever mean anything to you…?” The soldier asked quietly, voice fully of uncertainty and vulnerability.

“S’waaaah?!” The bear exclaimed, sounding appalled. “I’m surprised you asked that… totally useless, totally boring, totally **stupid** question! Did **you** mean **anything** to **me**?”

As he mockingly repeated the question, putting emphasis on words like he was addressing a child. He tilted his head side to side.

“Hmmm… I guess when ya think about it… **Not really**!” Monokuma belted out a laugh. “You couldn’t even kill Oogami right, and you have the **audacity** to ask that?! Were you dropped on your head as a baby? … Don’t answer that. I probably did the dropping, and I am **not** sorry.”

Mukuro hung her head, downcast.

_‘S-So it was my fault… Everything… was my fault…’_ The soldier thought miserably to herself.

Kyoko crossed her arms and glared at the bear sternly.

“But because she ‘messed up’, you got the chance to try and take us all down… That was the whole point of this, wasn’t it?”

Monokuma rubbed the back of his head bashfully.

“Wellllll~! It was a beautiful opportunity, don’tcha think?! **Eight executions**! Can you **imagine it**?!” The bear screamed excitedly, panting creepily. He then hung his head shamefully. “… Oh wells. I’ll just hafta take Ogre’s death and Ikusaba’s broken soul as consolation prizes! I mean, it’s not like you’re gonna want anything more to do with her, right?! She tried murdering Oogami ‘cause of some sick, kinky fantasies! Whatcha think she’ll do to the rest of you when she gets bored?!”

“Ideas **you** planted in her head…!” Makoto shouted in righteous anger. “ **All of this is your fault**!!!”

Monokuma raised his paws indignantly, shouting as well.

“Hey, hey, hey…! There ya go again, piling all the blame on **my** shoulders when it was **you guys** that created this shitstorm!” Monokuma patted his belly proudly. “Did **I** treat Ikusaba like a pariah?! Did **I** reject Naegi-kun’s Hope-Dope Friendship shpeals?! Did **I** avoid Oogami ‘cause of ‘bad feelings’ and useless friendship speeches?! Did **I** try throwing everyone to the wolves to save some former cross-dresser?! Did **I** try to make things **interesting** with Genocide Jack nonsense?! **You guys** were the ones at each other’s throats! I guess if there’s one thing I helped do… it was prove that Hope and Friendship are such fragile things~! Such **bullshit**!”

Monokuma raised a paw up proudly, showing his grinning half to them all.

“Lemme make this perfectly, 100%, totally clear! This academic coliseum is between **you guys**! A battle against yourselves! **You guys** are your own enemy!”

Togami raised a fist angrily.

“You’re exactly right, Monokuma…”

Monokuma rubbed the back of his head bashfully.

“Yeahhhh, Togami! **Someone** gets it!”

“This is a game of King of the Castle between us… A life or death game with only one spot atop the hill… You’re exactly right about that… And that’s exactly why… **I withdraw from the game**.” Togami declared, crossing his arms and sneering at the bear. Monokuma reeled back in shock.

“Say what now?!”

“By making sacrificial lambs of themselves, Oowada, Oogami, hell, even Ikusaba have rejected the very foundation of this game. Because of their actions, everyone else has completely discarded their fear for the game. There’s no reason for me to participate in a game that’s lost its source of excitement. So I’m withdrawing.”

“Th-The hell, seriously?!” Monokuma continued to rage.

Togami pointed at Monokuma with determination and righteous anger.

“… which leaves me with one last thing to look forward to. The brutal punishment you’re going to get for thinking you can try to manipulate me!”

“T-Togami…!” Makoto stuttered out, completely taken aback as well. “Then you’re…!”

Togami raised a pointer finger to his temple.

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not acting out of some sickeningly sweet sense of sentimentality…”

“So even Togami joins us…” Celes commented casually. She turned to the soldier expectantly. “And you, Ikusaba…? Where do you stand?”

Mukuro looked down at her quivering hands. She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head vigorously.

“I… I just don’t know…!” The dark-haired girl looked up with watery eyes. “Oogami d-died… because of me… I don’t deserve… a second chance…”

She looked away in shame, feeling the weight of her sins, her guilt, crashing down onto her with an oppressive weight.

“… B-But… I won’t… g-get in your way…” She quietly mumbled. She clenched her eyes shut even tighter. “I…”

What could she do…? What **should** she do…?

… What did she **want** to do? Her. Not Junko, not Monokuma. What did **she** , Mukuro Ikusaba, want to do?

That was the big question in front of her now. It was clear… she had much to think about…

“I-I…I don’t want Oogami’s sacrifice to go to waste!” Fujisaki cried out tearfully. “I-I’ll stay strong, for her! A-And… for Oowada, too…”

Mondo tensed as the programmer brought him up. He stared at Fujisaki in awe.

“E-Even after I fucked up like that…? Even after I **doubted** you, kid?!”

“You didn’t mean it!” Fujisaki insisted stubbornly. “You fell for Monokuma’s lie, but we had you back! I-I just know you’ll have our back, too!”

Mondo scowled in determination.

“… Damn straight, kid. I ain’t fucking up again!” Never again.

Sayaka wiped tears from her eye in relief.

“I’m so glad…” The idol smiled as her luckster patted her shoulder consolingly.

Kyoko smirked at the increasingly frantic bear.

“How about that? Can you still claim Oogami died for nothing?”

Monokuma turned away from them all sourly.

“Hmph. You guys are lame! But that’s cool, whatever...” He whirled around excitedly, paws over his mouth. “ **I** still haven’t had my usual fun and games yet!”

“F-Fun and games…?” Makoto echoed warily.

“Enough about that epic failure of a mole. Let’s keep the tradition going and get this party started! It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for: **Punishment Time**!!!”

“But the culprit’s already dead…” Kirigiri frowned.

“W-Wait… Are you going to kill…?!” Makoto trailed off in horror.

“M-Me?!” Fujisaki cried out in distress. After all, out of all of them, he was the closest to actually ‘helping’ Oogami with her death…

Monokuma rubbed the back of his head bashfully.

“Nahhhh! I’m not gonna kill one of **you guys** just ‘cause the villain is already dead! I’m twice as stringent about the rules as the average bear! But still, it’d be a waste not to make use of the very special punishment I prepared.” He belted out a laugh. “So I’ve invited **an equally special guest**!”

“A special guest…?” Makoto repeated, getting an increasingly bad feeling…

“Let’s get the ball rollin’! It’s **Punishment Time**!” Monokuma declared passionately.

Unlike previous Executions, there wasn’t someone dragged across an 8-bit screen… This one started without preamble. Out in some construction zone, or at least a fake stage version of one, Alter Ego’s screen flickered to life, and he looked around innocently. Moments later, Monokuma knocked over the backdrop with the bulldozer he was riding in, and got in close to the laptop. Once within range, he raised the claw… and started smashing away repeatedly at it, not stopping until he got the scrap metal to form a ball. Only then did he stop, add a stamp of his muzzle and his ‘evil’ red eye, and then back away in the bulldozer, his work done.

“N-No!” Makoto was the first to cry out, once the execution was over. Mondo stood there, mouth agape.

“The **fuck** did you just do?! He’s a little ball now…!”

Fujisaki cried harder than he had for most of the trial… he wasn’t even able to form words for what they just borne witness to.

Monokuma patted his belly contentedly, breathing out a relieved sigh.

“Ahhh, all that hard work has kicked up an appetite! I sure could go for a nice, piping hot bowl of ramen! Ain’t nothin’ like ramen after some hard manual labor! And just for the record, I’m a shio ramen supremacist! I mean, really? Tonkotsu? Miso? Weak! In color, aroma, **and** volume! Ahaha!”

All Makoto could think about was the words Alter Ego had said to him, Kirigiri, and Fujisaki back in the dressing room… They knew it was basically a suicide mission, but even so…

Even so, a black, seething anger rose up within him and erupted from his mouth.

“H-How **dare** you! **He was our friend**! **How dare you kill him**!!!”

Monokuma tilted his head curiously.

“Whoa, you made friends with a laptop?! Isn’t that kinda sad? Sadder than befriending a bouncy ball!”

“ **Screw you**!” Makoto continued to rage. “He wasn’t **just** a laptop… He was Alter Ego, **our friend** … **And you killed him**!!”

Monokuma giggled.

“You one of those weirdos who thinks everything’s got a soul? What do they call that, animism?” The bear shrugged uncaringly. “Ehh, not that it matters either way… I couldn’t bear to let him stick around any longer – not when he started pokin’ around where he shouldn’t have!”

Kirigiri sighed.

“So you **had** caught on…”

“Hold your horses, girly. I was never **not** in the know!” Monokuma explained smugly. “The fact that Fujisaki had messed around on the lappy, and the fact you guys decrypted the data on it… I saw through you every step of the way!”

“Huh?!” Sayaka blurted out in shock.

“So you knew and were just keeping tabs on us…” Togami growled angrily.

“That data was, in a word, something like a gift from me to you.” Monokuma mocked them. “A reward you could only get if you managed to crack that hardcore encryption! So there was never any problem with you guys digging through that… but tryin’ to get on the school’s network was takin’ things too far! Ergo! **Crush**!!!”

As the bear laughed, Makoto stewed in his thoughts bitterly.

_‘Alter Ego… he fought for us… He put his life on the line… for our sakes… and in the end, he died for it…’_

Monokuma raised a paw, showing his grinning side again.

“Welp… It’s about time I started scooting on out of here…We all had our laughs, but it’ll be back to square one tomorrow, y’know! You **say** you’re all gonna get buddy-buddy… But are you suuure it’s okay to drop your guards…? Ikusaba’s still alive and kickin’, y’know! And I’m not done with her yet… So keep that mutt good and muzzled, mmkay~? I’ll be by later to bash her brains in with my big stick!”

With that jolly, eccentric salute, Monokuma departed, leaving the eight of them alone.

“… I-I’m sorry…” Mukuro fidgeted nervously. She bowed her head, unable to look anyone in the eyes. “I… this was all… m-my fault…”

“Been there, done that…” Celes dismissed airily, hands on her hips. “At least Monokuma didn’t lob a firetruck at you.”

Cue more anxious fidgeting. Mondo rubbed the back of his head.

“So… what do we do now…?”

Togami scoffed arrogantly.

“Not much more we can do than go back upstairs…”

Mondo scowled at the heir in annoyance.

“No, ya dumbass, I mean about Ikusaba!” The biker raised a twitching hand in aggravation. “I mean… fuck! We screwed up, she screwed up… **where do we stand** , y’know?”

Nobody had a nice, easy answer for him. Makoto wanted to speak up in Mukuro’s defense, but he was wary of causing unneeded tension after everything they’d just gone through. Sayaka noticed the tension in her luckster’s shoulders and her eyes softened. She glanced over at the soldier curiously, and the dark-haired girl just kept avoiding everyone’s eyes.

“… I think… that would be a discussion best saved for tomorrow…” Kyoko decided, running a hand through her hair calmly. “I think if we tried to decide anything now, in our current states, we may end up regretting it later. Let’s just… return to our rooms…”

No one felt like objecting to that suggestion, for once. Rest… sounded heavenly, quite frankly. Mondo reluctantly patted the still weeping Chihiro’s shoulder, and prompted him to follow them to the elevator. Sayaka and Mukuro stuck close to Makoto, with Celes standing in a nearby corner of the elevator.

When they did get back up to the school zone… so much of the immediate tension left their shoulders. They could… put this Trial behind them…

~*~

Sluggishly, Makoto woke up when he heard his doorbell go off. Sayaka had decided to sleep in her own room for the night, but shyly admitted she’d probably be back sooner rather than later… Still, to change her mind tonight? The boy sleepily padded over to the door and opened it, expecting to see a head of blue hair.

… What he saw instead was an on-edge Ultimate Soldier, glancing back and forth cautiously in the hall.

“Ikusaba…?” Makoto began, but the soldier shushed him.

“I don’t have much time, Naegi-kun…” The girl explained in a hushed whisper. To be precise, she had twenty two seconds left, after that jaunt to and from the fourth floor… She couldn’t afford to delay. Not now. “Take this.”

Quickly, Mukuro struck her hand out… and slipped something small into his hands. As she did so, she shot him a conflicted look that held so many different emotions… Then, just as quickly, she darted back over to her room and shut the door without so much as a word.

Getting the sense it would be wise to close his door, Makoto did so. And once again listening to his gut, he padded back over to his bed, gripping the item in his hand tightly, and slipped under the blanket. As he did so, he chanced a look at the item in his hands. His brow knitted together in confusion.

_‘A… key?’_ Makoto thought to himself in bewilderment.

A key with a Monokuma head at the base of it. He clenched it in his hand with determination and slipped it into his pocket while under the covers. He then rolled over, feigning sleep for the camera.

Makoto didn’t know what the key was for, what it opened… But he was going to guard that key with his life. Because Mukuro took a big chance with him on this. Somehow. Some way. Even without knowing the details, simply just knowing how cautious Mukuro had been, he knew that much.

The luckster couldn’t fight the smile that tugged at his lips.

_‘I’m glad I believed in you…’_

And he wasn’t going to stop now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woof... I spent aaall day mashing out the second half of this beastie. Hell, even over half... 25 pages jumped to 63 in Word... Y'all better appreciate the blood, sweat, and tears. XD
> 
> ... That said, after running a marathon with this chap, I kinda feel like I could have done "better" with the Mukuro parts, especially. We're not done with her being a very broken Muku, but at least the ending gives you guys a hint where she's starting to lean, mentally. :3 
> 
> All aboard for Chapter 5? :3 I'll even do you guys a solid and reveal the Chapter title, because you all probably expect one thing, given the current titles up 'til now... 
> 
> Time for expectations to go out the window! :3
> 
> Chapter 5: Smile at Despair in the Name of Hope


	22. Chapter 5, Part 1: Smile at Despair in the Name of Hope

_“Starting today, you are all freshman of Hope’s Peak Academy. On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I welcome you. Please enjoy your time here, and hone those amazing talents. We expect great things from all of you!”_

_Having concluded the entrance ceremony, Jin Kirigiri dismissed the students for the rest of the day. They were free to socialize or begin working as they saw fit. Official classes would begin the next day._

_Jin returned to his office with a small smile on his face. Kiyotaka Ishimaru had stopped him in the gym to pose some earnest questions about academic life, and he was all too happy to oblige the boy. Hope’s Peak housed students of all kinds, but Jin really appreciated and admired the truly diligent and professional ones. They were the most dependable to work with when school functions and events rolled around, because they were dedicated and had good leadership experience._

_Regardless of his grandfather’s history, Ishimaru would fit right in at Hope’s Peak. That passion and dedication would earn him a bright future._

_“Seems you found a ‘respectable’ niche after you abandoned the family after all…”_

_Jin calmly closed the door and kept his back to the visitor that had taken residence in his office._

_“So you came after all…” The man murmured softly, slowly turning to face the lilac-haired girl that was standing near his desk, arms crossed and eyes narrowed at him. Despite the animosity, the man gave a small, wry smile. “I’m sorry for the mess, but sit wherever you would like, Kyoko…”_

_Kyoko’s lips curled further down in distaste._

_“Why bother? I won’t be here for more than two minutes.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear uncaringly._

_Jin breathed a small sigh._

_“I figured that would be your attitude… Still, my offer stands. As long as you are my student, my door will always be open to you.”_

_“Your **student**?” Kyoko snapped coldly, glaring at him. “Yes… I suppose I did debase myself in coming here, so I technically **am** a student, however reluctantly. As long as you understand there is **nothing else** between us.”_

_Jin frowned at her choice of words._

_“Kyoko… You know I didn’t mean it like that. Regardless of your hard feelings, I **do** still consider you my daughter. That will never change.”_

_“Really?” Kyoko asked archly, dropping her arms but curling her hands into fists. “The Kirigiri family dropout actually **acknowledges** he had a daughter? I’d be impressed, if all evidence didn’t point to the contrary. Or is it the case you acknowledged that fact, but didn’t bring yourself to **care** for her?... Frankly, I don’t know which is worse.”_

_Jin averted his gaze calmly._

_“I would have brought you with me, Kyoko… But your grandfather wouldn’t have allowed it.”_

_“I’m glad you didn’t.” Kyoko coldly replied. “Grandfather needed an heir, and you clearly didn’t care enough to carry on the family legacy. Besides… Detective work suits me. I can’t imagine myself with any other upbringing. Any other career path.”_

_Jin smiled sadly._

_“You love being a detective, hmm…? I’m glad. As a father, nothing can bring me more joy than to see my child prosper. If you have found a career that makes you happy… then I could want for nothing more.”_

_Kyoko hissed as she clutched at her collar and glared angrier at the dark-haired man._

_“ **Stop**! You forfeited your rights as a parent when you ran away and didn’t look back! Stop pretending there is anything between us!”_

_Jin’s lips quirked into a wry grin._

_“Then as your Headmaster, I will give my blessing to pursue whatever path you wish. In the end, it is still my responsibility to support and encourage you. Nothing changes.”_

_A tense silence passed between them. Kyoko’s glare was venomous by this point, but Jin’s kind and understanding demeanor didn’t change. It was clear… that her decision to come and sever ties meant nothing to the man. He would treat her as his child, regardless. And that meant… enrolling in Hope’s Peak had been one huge waste of time._

_“You really are… a despicable father…”_

~*~

_‘I never knew just how significant that key would be, when Ikusaba gave it to me… The life it would save. The disaster that would be averted. The others had been wary of Ikusaba after Monokuma ousted her, but I **knew** she was still our friend.’_

_‘… Unfortunately, Ikusaba gave me that key just three days before **that event** … Three days before… we came face-to-face with our next incident… Three days before **that terrible crime** was committed…’_

_A dry, bitter chuckle._

_‘Well… I say that ‘I never knew’… I suppose in hindsight, that’s still true. I mean… do revelations still count, after death?... Guess we’ll find out.’_

~*~

“Ding-Dong, Bing-Bong!” The alarm rang throughout the school. “Good morning, you guys~! It is now 7:00 a.m.! Riiise and shiiiiine~! Let’s make today the best day it can be!”

As the screen flickered off, the girl slowly opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling.

_‘She’s gonna punish you so hard~…’_ A voice rang out in her head mockingly. _‘Was it worth it?’_

Privately, Mukuro ruminated on it.

_‘Let’s see… Junko cast me aside. Used me to try and kill Oogami.’_ Strong, dependable, **loyal** Oogami… _‘Lied about Naegi-kun abandoning me. Would have made me burn Oogami’s will without reading it… And above all… **hurt Naegi-kun** … Yeah. I have no regrets!’_

It was strange to be so sure of herself… But the thing was, Oogami was absolutely right. She trusted Naegi-kun. Naegi-kun was an unwavering pillar that she could lean on. Could cling to. He… He **promised to save her** , even after it was clear that she had tried to kill one of his friends. Naegi-kun forgave her when she was at her worst, at her lowest.

She should have realized that after he forgave Celes, but for some reason, she never really made the connection… Maybe because… she herself hadn’t forgiven Celes… Hadn’t forgiven herself for stealing Naegi-kun’s memories and putting him in this nightmare.

_‘You don’t really think they’ll forgive you if you help them escape…?’_ That simpering voice continued picking at her insecurities. _‘They hold a grudge, short-trooper. I should know…’_

Mukuro closed her eyes calmly as she wrangled her frayed nerves before they could spiral out of control again. She centered her thinking on Naegi-kun and that smile she fell in love with… That smile that saved her.

_‘Ah, but what about Junko~…? Even after everything, you still can’t abandon her. She’s your **sister**. You help these guys, the Future Foundation’s gonna get her.’ _That sickeningly sweet voice tittered.

Mukuro slowly opened her eyes again, they were glazed over.

… Aye, now there’s the rub…

~*~

That morning the cafeteria, it was a surprise to see all eight of them assembled. Even Mukuro had shown up… of her own accord. She was hovering near Makoto as she had been the night before,

… Makoto was flanked by both Mukuro and Sayaka, actually. There was even a bit of that old, not-as-threatening tension that had existed between Sayaka and Junko, and the luckster couldn’t place **why** that existed… His confusion was only perpetuated by the looks he’d occasionally catch Celes making from across the table from where she was sitting between Kirigiri and Fujisaki – the narrowed eyes aimed at the girls to his left and right.

Still, he didn’t comment on it. He didn’t have time to, because the Togami heir addressed them all from the head of the table.

“… Before we launch into our post-Class Trial recon, let’s get this nonsense out of the way now.” The heir’s cold eyes swept around the table. He then focused on the soldier first. “Ikusaba, the Mastermind has clearly cast you aside. While I refuse to give you my complete trust regardless, I must know: Where do you stand?”

Mukuro looked down at the table, not meeting Byakuya’s eyes.

“… Naegi-kun.” The dark-haired girl muttered under her breath.

Makoto raised his eyebrows, and was about to answer her like she addressed him, but Togami narrowed his eyes at her.

“What was that?” The heir demanded.

“I stand… with Naegi-kun.” Mukuro repeated herself, not looking up from the table. She curled her hands into fists anxiously in her lap.

Togami frowned, and was about to comment about how that wasn’t quite good enough – but Kirigiri beat him to it.

“That’s honestly better than we could have hoped for…” The mysterious girl sighed calmly and closed her eyes. “Think about it. Naegi isn’t, and never was, our enemy. If anything, Naegi’s been the heart of our group. Friends come and go, motives are given to drive wedges between us, and yet – Naegi is always there. A constant. A friend that keeps fighting, even when it looks bleakest. If Ikusaba says her loyalty is with him… don’t you think that basically makes her an ally of ours, as well?”

The heir remained thoughtfully silent at this. Mondo rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

“Can’t argue with that. Naegi kept my dumbass self in check with that last trial… I was set to screw us over, but he kept on pushin’. I ain’t turning my back on him now!” He clenched a fist in determination and squeezed his eyes shut. “And if I gotta work with Ikusaba along the way, well… I think I can manage, now. It’s what Oogami would have wanted, and I… I flew off the handle without even listening to what Ikusaba had to say for herself. Sorry, Ikusaba.”

As Mukuro and Makoto both snapped their heads to the biker in stunned silence, the apologies didn’t stop there. Fujisaki was next.

“I-I’m sorry, too…!” The programmer cried, looking Mukuro in the eye. “I-I… I wasn’t brave enough to stand up for you like Naegi and Oogami, a-and th-that might as well have been betrayal, too! I-I’m so sorry…!”

Sayaka smiled bitterly as she felt the need to speak out as well, craning her head to look at Mukuro from the other side of Makoto.

“I’m sorry, too! I let your role as one of Monokuma’s moles cloud my judgement, and I took my frustrations out on you! We… We all should have listened to you. We listened to Oogami, but we bullied you. That wasn’t fair, and that wasn’t right.”

“Guys…” Makoto smiled gratefully. Mukuro, meanwhile, continued to stare off into space in shock. Not just Celes, but now Mondo, Chihiro, and Sayaka, too…

_‘Wh-Why…?’_ Mukuro thought to herself in disbelief. _‘Why are they apologizing…?’_

She deserved to be scorned, didn’t she? It’s not like anything they learned or said was **wrong** … Mondo had been right. She did basically kill Ishimaru. Mukuro saved him from getting impaled by spears, but because of it, he went onto kill Asahina, and so still died. Similarly, she was allied with the group that kidnapped all their friends and families; Sayaka hadn’t been wrong to hate her for that… Celes was humiliated, and she wouldn’t have been if Mukuro had just listened to her instincts and detained the gambler in the nurse’s office – Leon and Hifumi might still be alive, if she had just done that. And Kyoko? Byakuya? Of course she knew the information they wanted to know. Maybe she deserved to have it tortured out of her, too… After all, Sakura was dead because of her…

_‘They’re just setting you up for disappointment again!’_ That voice chastised her, in the back of her mind.

… Mukuro just didn’t know what to think. She felt so empty. Lost.

Celes nodded primly.

“Naegi-kun truly does work miracles… He has helped us to find the truth, time and again. It is only a matter of time before we get to the bottom of this academy and gain our freedom.”

Togami kept a finger to his temple as he reflected on all of this

“Very well, then. We will keep Ikusaba around on a probationary basis. With the information she possesses, I would be fool to turn her away out of a misguided sense of paranoia.” The heir then pointed at Naegi authoritatively. “You will be in charge of her, however! If she crosses a line, or does stab us in the back, you will be held accountable!”

The luckster squared his shoulders in determination, despite his friends wanting to speak up in his defense. He glared back at Togami with just as much fervor.

“I… already planned on taking responsibility for her…!”

Before he could go any further, Monokuma chose that moment to appear.

“Hey, hey!” The bear greeted them all in his usual bouncy, carefree way. “How y’all doin’ today?!”

Kirigiri narrowed her eyes at the bear.

“What is it now…? You couldn’t possibly have business with us so soon after the trial…”

Monokuma rubbed the back of his head bashfully.

“Oh, don’t mind me, girly! This is more of a technical detail I never got to last night! It’s not about motives or anything like that~!”

“Technical detail…?” Makoto echoed in bewilderment.

Monokuma nodded sagely, patting his belly.

“Ikusaba’s been kicked to the pound, so I gotta lay down some ground rules! I mean, if I didn’t, you dastardly kids would abuse that poor, sick mutt! Sooo!” The bear cleared his throat. “Ahem! I am updating the School Regulations with two new rules! The first is real simple! Mukuro Ikusaba is not allowed in areas that lack security cameras!”

“Areas without security cameras…” Makoto mused, thinking about the ones that existed.

“That would be the sauna and the hidden room on the second floor…” Kyoko summarized, cupping her chin.

Monokuma nodded sagely again.

“Yep, yep! Since we don’t have the shots to cure her of rabies, I don’t want you guys cornered ‘cause you got too buddy-buddy with her~! I would be a failure of a Headmaster if I couldn’t monitor whatever gruesome, grizzly murder she cooks up next! Just think of the trial we’d hafta endure! There goes my impartiality ‘cause even **I’m** not in the loop~!” The bear teased.

Kyoko rolled her eyes.

“It’s clear you have other intentions… What is the second rule?”

Monokuma stood ramrod straight, indicating this next one was going to be… serious.

“Well… I didn’t wanna tighten your guys’ leash any more than I had already. I mean, I made locked doors off-limits.” The bear raised a claw threateningly. “Hooowever! With all this chummy buddy-buddyness, I feel I must intervene! Ikusaba’s already one sick puppy, we don’t need **you guys** taking advantage of her when someone should just put her down already! And so~! The second rule is: **Mukuro Ikusaba is not allowed to talk about anything she knows as my mole**! This means: No talking about me, my plans, the outside world, or even anything about this academy you guys haven’t already discovered for yourselves! She squeals, she dies. **End of story**!”

Mondo recoiled like most of them did.

“Y-You shittin’ me?!”

“Th-That’s… cruel! Too cruel!” Fujisaki cried out.

Togami narrowed his eyes at the bear.

“So, that was your intention with the first rule… You intend to keep tabs on her.”

Monokuma tilted his head curiously.

“Hey, why the long face? I’m just making sure that mutt’s stinky breath doesn’t choke you guys out more than it has to… You weren’t seriously gonna **believe** anything she said, were you? Ikusaba’s a broken, dull sword! One that can still stab ya in the back! You wanna place your faith in a tool like that?!”

“Ikusaba’s **not** just a tool…!” Makoto protested, pointing his finger at Monokuma in outrage. “She’s our friend! **Of course** we’d believe her…!”

Monokuma shook his head in disappointment.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk… You poor, deluded summer child! Getting sentimental over a piece of trash… Just what are we going to do with you?”

Kyoko narrowed her eyes.

“Frankly, I’d call this an odious infringement of your rules…”

Monokuma straightened up again, snapping to attention at the accusation.

“Eh?! What makes you say that?!”

“Doesn’t the fourth rule state: **With minimal restrictions, you are free to explore Hope’s Peak Academy at your discretion**?” Kyoko arched an eyebrow. “Doesn’t this new rule spit on the nature of that rule?”

“Hmmm…” Monokuma hummed unconvincingly. “I dunno, I think the rule’s pretty clear! **Explore the school**! That’s what you’re supposed to do! Ikusaba’s not your walking, talking picture book! Even if ya could try to spar with me in legalese, it also says with **minimal restrictions** , y’know. Laws are meant to serve and protect~! So y’see… this rule is necessary~…”

None of the students bought that for one second. Monokuma was doing this to spite them – because they were making progress. Unfortunately, with a chime from their e-handbooks, the rules were now in place, and there was nothing they could do. Monokuma gave another cheery salute and took his leave.

Mondo growled lowly.

“What I wouldn’t give to wrap my hands around that little bastard’s neck…!”

“Unfortunately, that’s against the rules…” Celes heaved a sigh.

Kyoko shook her head.

“It doesn’t matter. We **will** find the truth… I won’t rest until we do…”

Togami rolled his eyes and stood up, turning his back to them.

“Enough chatter. It’s recon time. Don’t just move your mouths – move your bodies.” With that moody order, he stalked away. The rest of them reluctantly followed him.

~*~

“Hope’s Peak Academy’s fifth floor, huh…” Makoto muttered as they reached the fifth floor together. “This one feels… kind of different…”

Sayaka hugged herself and shivered.

“I know what you mean…” It wasn’t just the fact that there was no further stairs in sight – the atmosphere was just… chilling. Not literally, but…

… It wasn’t a “good” kind of different. That was the simplest way to put it.

Mukuro blinked slowly as she registered where they were. What floor they reached.

_‘… Oh.’_ Was all she could manage to think. The numbness in her body that had been receding was now back with a vengeance, and she felt something cold drop down into her stomach like a baseball.

Chances were, Junko didn’t lock **that** room…

… Chances were, Junko wanted them to **see** that room, with their own eyes…

Celes, Togami, Kirigiri, and Fujisaki had already all gone ahead of them. Oowada had chosen to check out the classrooms, and said he’d check on the iron plates covering the windows. That left… two more classrooms, though, according to the map.

“Hey, Ikusaba…? Did you wanna check on the iron plates in the classrooms?” Makoto asked. He knew it was probably a fool’s errand at this point, but…

Slowly, Mukuro shook her head.

“I… You can try, but…” She trailed off helplessly. Both the luckster and idol winced in sympathy. Those new rules really weren’t doing them any favors…

Still, they checked, just to be thorough. Classroom 5-B was standard and basically a photocopy of the ones they’d encountered so far.

But Classroom 5-C…

“Wh-What the heck… **happened** here?!” Makoto yelled out the moment they walked through the door.

From the pungent smell alone, it was like running into a brick wall. It made the luckster nauseous and want to gag. The sight before them was even more terrifying… Aside from the clear signs of struggle throughout the room, there was old, dried blood all around. And on the floor, there was some police tape that were used to outline bodies.

Sayaka backed up into a wall, her eyes wide open with terror and her skin paled ghastly.

“N-N-No… No, no, no… Th-This can’t be real…!” The idol cried out. There had been… other murders that took place here?!

Was Hope’s Peak… just a front for human slaughter…?

The idol didn’t like to think about that. But all the same, those thoughts just wouldn’t leave her head. And the more she thought about it, the more she feared for herself and for Makoto…

“This stench is awful…” Togami, who had reached the room first, had his arms crossed and had his gaze averted with a grimace.

“What **is** that smell…?” Makoto asked out of instinct.

“You should have at least an inkling, I imagine – having witnessed death here numerous times already.” Togami snidely replied.

Makoto stared off into space in disbelief.

“Then this is…”

“ **The stench of death** – of human **flesh** and **blood** …” Togami finished his thought.

“ **The smell of death and despair** …” Makoto gasped out.

Togami raised a finger to his temple in thought.

“Even so, this is putrid. So much blood and flesh in such a small area – it’s like a battlefield.”

Makoto shook his head in dismay.

“This has gotta be Monokuma’s…!” Makoto didn’t even get to finish that sentence as Monokuma made an appearance again.

“It’s **my** fault again, is it?! I’d appreciate it if you stopped shoving the blame for everything on me!” The bear growled, raising a claw threateningly.

Makoto pointed at him accusingly.

“Th-There’s no way things would have turned out like this if you weren’t involved!” The luckster protested.

“Actually, it’s quite the opposite…” Monokuma disagreed.

“The opposite…?” Makoto echoed.

The bear nodded sagely.

“Yes, and I’ll give you a hint. I have done absolutely nothing to or in this room. I didn’t even clean it. I just **left it exactly as it was**!”

“What?!” The luckster exclaimed in disbelief.

“There’s your hint. Just slightly more useful than a hint in a hardcore retro RPG!” Monokuma giggled. He then bowed his head miserably. “In any event, all this blood’s kinda disturbing, huh? But y’know, people die every day in the outside world… so it’s no big deal! Just hold your head up high and press forward!”

Having spoken his piece, Monokuma left swiftly. Makoto just continued staring off into space.

_‘What’s he talking about? He didn’t clean it, but left it exactly as it was? What does it mean?’_

Shaking his head to clear it, Makoto turned to the soldier out of instinct.

“H-Hey, Ikusaba…? D-Do you know… what happened in here…?” Despite his question, Mukuro only looked straight ahead, clearly thinking about something.

Togami snorted from where he was standing, toward the middle of the room.

“Like she’s going to be any help… You **know** Monokuma muzzled her…”

The luckster winced and nodded reluctantly. He then focused his attention on Sayaka, who was still very disturbed about the state of the room, and he comforted her. As he did, Mukuro was left idly to her… memories…

~*~

_Stiffly, Mukuro slid the door to the classroom open. Idly, she noted how her sister had already started messing with the lighting in the building… Well… admittedly, lighting that she herself had been forced to work on because it was “grunt work”._

_It’s not that Mukuro had forgotten her own actions. She was just forced to acknowledge how real all this was, seeing the Student Council now in front of her…_

_Slowly, the soldier walked over to the teacher’s podium with a big bag slung over one arm. Izuru Kamukura elected to stay near the doorway instead of following her. Clearly, his piercing, apathetic gaze unnerved the Council._

_“You, **talk**!” A boy suddenly barked out with authority, addressing Mukuro. “I don’t know where you get off threatening us, but it’s not gonna work!”_

_“That… that video…” A pink-haired girl spoke up next. “Was it real?”_

_“Why do we have to hold this dumb meeting so late?” A girl in a Pikachu hoodie asked boredly, leaning on her elbows as she sat at a desk._

_“This is not at all how we operate…” A boy in glasses next to her agreed. A fat boy behind them nodded stiffly as well._

_“Student Council members…” Mukuro began to address them, as per her script. “In accordance with my sister’s will, you will now murder each other!”_

_A chair squeaked as a red-haired girl stood up abruptly._

_“Huh?! Are you **crazy**?! Why the **hell** would we do something like that?!” She spoke up defiantly._

_“That’s enough!” The dark-haired boy who had spoken up first silenced the redhead. “It’s essential we all remain calm! Should we succumb to panic here…!”_

_The boy was cut off as a gunshot rang out and a splash of blood hit his cheek. He winced instinctually. Only when the redhead had collapsed dead, clearly shot in the chest, did it dawn on them that Mukuro had shot her mercilessly. As they panicked, Mukuro continued blandly._

_“You have two options… And only two options… Attack your classmates and hope for the best. Or end up like your friend there.”_

_At that moment, Junko came in with a grin on her face, wheeling in a cart with two briefcases on them._

_“What’s up?! I’m your host, Junko Enoshima~! I brought along a little something to get this party started, if y’know what I’m saying?!”_

_“What the hell…?” A bulky guy titled his head in confusion at the briefcases._

_“You’re gonna be way less Kumbaya once I pop these puppies open~! Show them what they’ve won!” Junko popped open the cases, revealing tapes to be the contents. “Family secrets, hidden scandals, dirty money, sex, lies… Good stuff! Each tape is weapons-grade blackmail! And you’ll notice I’ve got one for every person here~! Gosh, it’d be a shame if they got out…”_

_As Junko’s cold blue eyes conveyed the seriousness of this threat, Mukuro emptied the bag’s contents onto the floor with a resounding clatter, revealing a collection of weapons. The pink-haired girl leaned down to examine them in horror._

_“Y… You want us to **use** these?!”_

_The leader of the Council spoke up yet again._

_“Everyone, listen! We are **not** going to kill each other! We stand together through thick and thin, right?!”_

_A short dark-haired girl clenched her fists in determination._

_“Yeah…! He’s right! We’re all friends! And friends don’t abandon each other! We’re better than that!”_

_Too bad for the Council, the secretary was glancing at her tape with an empty stare. It was clear what was going to happen soon enough. Mukuro didn’t need her soldier instincts to tell that the secretary wasn’t the only desperate one here._

_Junko smirked as she turned around to look at them all again._

_“You talk a big game about meeting your end together… But I know for a **fact** you’re going to be murdering the ever-loving **crap** out of each other in like a minute, tops!” Junko suddenly thrust a music book into her face, gleefully. “Hit it, sis!”_

_Mukuro blinked owlishly as she read the title – “Give Me Wings.”_

_“You want me to… sing this…?” The soldier mumbled in bewilderment._

_Junko leaned in with her Cheshire grin._

_“Hehe! With feeling~!”_

_Mukuro blushed in embarrassment, but cleared her throat, all the same._

_“Ima watashi no…”_

~*~

Mukuro clenched her fists as the chilling memories flooded back to her. At one time, these recollections would have filled her with profound joy. After all… She’d done **everything** that Junko had wanted. Executed that Killing Game flawlessly. It had plunged so many people into Despair, after Junko doctored the footage…

And on top of that… Junko had been so… **happy**! True, Junko was always happy when she created her art, but she’d shared that joy with Mukuro, treated her so fondly… They celebrated in that carnage together. No one else mattered.

_‘Was it all a lie…?’_ Mukuro thought to herself gloomily. At this point it wouldn’t have shocked her if it was. That nightmare had served multiple purposes. Showing and baptizing Izuru Kamukura into Despair, sparking an incident that would shake the very foundations of that illustrious academy, and creating a video that would plunge thousands of more people into Despair, just to name a few…

The soldier looked down at her hands blankly, a question floating to the forefront of her mind, unbidden. Had it been worth it? Despite how much she actually enjoyed herself at the time, basking in Junko’s acceptance and warmth… In the grand scheme. Had it been worth it?

For Junko… It most certainly had. She’d gotten **everything** she wanted. Accomplished her goals, launched the world into an apocalypse that it would struggle to recover from **if** it ever managed that…

For Izuru Kamukura it certainly had. While the people and motivations were inconsequential to him, that walking Frankenstein’s monster had enjoyed himself enough to support Junko’s plans and watch from afar. He was a man of few words, but he sung Junko’s praises, all the same.

But for Mukuro herself? **Had it been worth it** …? Had **she** gotten everything she wanted from that incident…?

“…”

_“You are woefully blind…” Kamukura droned, staying in his crouched sitting position. “Enoshima is going to kill you. It’s inevitable. You’ll be thrown away like trash.”_

Those damning red eyes still haunted her… But still. Were those words any more true, after everything that has happened?

Junko had most certainly “thrown her away like trash”… But… Junko was fickle. Her whims changed all the time. Junko could still change her mind…

_“Inconsequential.” Kamukura deadpanned. “If she had the Student Council butcher each other, turned her senpai into monsters, and plans to kill her classmates, what do family ties mean to Junko Enoshima? Absolutely nothing. You will keep denying and believing her right until she stabs you through the heart…”_

Mukuro froze in her tracks as those words trickled back into her ears. Her eyes turned into pinpricks, the more they simmered in her mind. For all the crap she gave that lab experiment, Kamukura still tended to speak the truth. It was easy to write him off as the Ultimate Liar because he probably had that talent somewhere within him… But Kamukura spoke clinically, detached. Lies were rooted in emotion, and Kamukura was a damn robot, for crying out loud! What purpose would there be for lying to her, a useless grunt?

_‘ **Unless** he was bored **,** and wanted to see your Despair…’ _That voice snarked in the back of her mind.

Mukuro’s eyes fell back to her hands again. Hands that now had the phantom sensations of blood registering in her mind. She… needed to go and clean her…

Mukuro shook her head fiercely. What was she saying? She hadn’t touched a thing in this room since that time. Her mind was playing tricks on her. She had to stay focused.

**Was it worth it**? She needed to decide, or she would never know peace again.

Mukuro’s eyes instinctually trailed to Makoto, who was comforting a still highly disturbed Sayaka. The luckster wouldn’t even be in this mess if she’d had a backbone and demanded he be spared…

**~~All~~** ~~of this would have been avoided, if she’d just shot Junko back then…~~

_‘Oh wells.’_ That voice in the back of her mind sneered. _‘Too late to do anything about it now. He’s here! You’re here! Might as well make the most out of our short remaining time together. ‘Sides! Junko’s probably already thinking about bringing you back into the fold. Don’t get too attached, or you’ll only hurt yourself when it’s time to kill.’_

Mukuro’s eyes snapped open in horror. Kill? Not Naegi-kun… Certainly not!

_‘If Junko says mow ‘em down, you terminate ‘em with extreme prejudice!’_ The voice mocked. _‘That’s how it’s always been. **How it always will be**.’_

Mukuro shook her head, disturbed.

_‘Not Naegi-kun… Never him.’_ **Never him**.

_‘Well, Mukuro my dear… Then you’ll **never** be with Junko again.’ _The voice mocked. _‘Face it. Even if Junko doesn’t ask that of you, it’s the **only way** she’ll be interested enough to give you a second glance! Kill your heart now so Li’l Sis Junko doesn’t hafta do it for ya~! Upupu!’_

Mukuro shivered as she hugged herself. Her breathing became ragged as she tried to calm her racing heart. It… It wouldn’t come down to that, would it? To get back into Junko’s good graces? She wouldn’t have to cross that blood red line… would she…?

Mukuro stiffly shook her head as other memories barraged her. Oogami’s will. Everyone apologizing to her. Naegi-kun’s **smile**. No… She wouldn’t do that to them. **Couldn’t**. She swore to herself, and to Naegi-kun – even if he didn’t know it – that she would stay loyal to him this time. No matter what. Giving him Monokuma’s skeleton key… that had been an **oath** , from her to him. She risked Junko’s wrath because Makoto risked **everything** for her. He said she was **worth it**.

And she wanted to believe him… To prove him right… But she was still at war with herself.

Because Junko was her sister. And in spite of the betrayals, the attempted kills, the insults… that truth never changed. Blood was thicker than water. And if totally betraying Junko in kind meant that the Future Foundation got to her…

Well…

_‘Either way, I **have** to decide!’ _Mukuro squeezed her eyes shut tight and bowed her head in shame.

Of course, she said that… But she already made her choice. She chose Naegi-kun. **And she was going to help him** , **no matter what** …

But that didn’t mean she could just leave Junko to die… right? Surely Naegi-kun would fight to keep her alive, too… He… He **forgave her**! Mukuro Ikusaba! That practically meant Naegi-kun **had** to offer Junko the same chance…!

… Is what she wished, anyway. But in the end… Mukuro would have to concede – if Naegi-kun decided the Mastermind had to be slain so that they would know peace, then… She would have to carry through on her **oath**. Mukuro’s word was her bond.

That didn’t make any of this easier…She was resolved. But her heart was still split in two…

~*~

“Darn…” Makoto jiggled the handle one more time, just to make sure. Yep. Didn’t budge. “It’s locked. Kinda disappointing we can’t go in, after walking down that long hallway…”

The luckster and idol had moved on from Classroom 5-C, leaving the Togami heir to investigate it by himself. Mukuro had decided to stay as well – she said she needed a moment to collect herself, but she supported the sentiment of getting Sayaka out of that room. It wasn’t good for them to be there; they didn’t deserve the trauma and torture that grizzly scene inspired. That’s what Mukuro had said.

Makoto was grateful that the soldier cared, but he was worried about her, too… He didn’t like leaving the soldier alone, not when she’d had to suffer that enough as it was. But still, he’d guided Sayaka and himself out of that room, and further down the hall to the right as they left.

“The nameplate on the wall says **bio lab** …” Sayaka murmured, gripping her luckster’s hand just a little bit tighter. She shivered as she speculated about what could possibly in such a room in this hellhole…

“A sealed biology lab, huh…?” Makoto mused. He chuckled weakly. “Makes me think of a B-movie horror flick…”

Sayaka smiled wryly at the lame joke, more or less understanding just how he felt. The Headmaster’s Office and Data Processing Room had potential for being places where the Mastermind was holed up… But a sealed bio lab definitely had more of a sinister vibe to it. Why seal it off, unless that damn bear planned to traumatize them later with it?

Nevertheless, the two agreed to backtrack the way they came, turn right, and go straight ahead. There were two other rooms to see, and they decided to check out the closest one. Sliding open the doors, they were greeted to a very Japanese scene. A dojo that had lockers, a suit of samurai armor, and other Japanese decorations; an archery range was visible on the other side of the vast room, and there was a small ‘forest’ of sakura blossom trees on the left and right sides that gave the room a beautiful, exotic appearance and vibe.

Kirigiri had apparently chosen to investigate this room. She nodded to the two of them in greeting as they arrived.

“It’s beautiful…” Sayaka breathed in wonder, looking around the room in awe. Makoto chuckled and nodded in agreement.

“It sure is… The Japanese aesthetic is awesome!” His voice radiated appreciation and admiration.

Kyoko ran a hand through her hair calmly.

“It’s beautiful… but not very useful to us. From what I’ve seen so far, there’re no clues or tools that would benefit us.” The mysterious girl reported her findings thus far. Makoto rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

“With a room like this, I figured…” He muttered.

It was still a better sight than Classroom 5-C. The luckster told Kirigiri as such, and she adopted a pensive look.

“I see… I’ll have to stop by there later. If the battle scars in that room are aged like you claim, there probably won’t be any useful clues… But the site of a serial murder within Hope’s Peak Academy has me suspicious. I… have some theories already.” The mysterious girl mused as the luckster filled her in, and the idol wandered off to inspect the lockers nearby.

Makoto nodded in acceptance. Though it was kind of surreal to see how invested Kirigiri got when it came to these grizzly scenes. Well… that wasn’t quite a fair assessment. She wasn’t intrigued by the violence, though she did take that aspect better than most of them did – rather, it was the mysteries that she seemed enthralled by. It was a peculiar pattern that he was noticing by now.

Was this related to her talent, which she hadn’t identified yet…?

“Well, I’m gonna move onto the last room I haven’t checked yet…” Makoto decided. He turned to the idol, who was still by the lockers. “Maizono, did you wanna stay or come with?”

He didn’t want to rush her.

“I’ll check it out later! I wanted to look around here a bit more!” The idol decided. Nodding in understanding, the luckster took his leave.

~*~

“Wow, this place is kinda like a jungle or botanical garden…” Makoto mused as he stepped into the last room on the fifth floor of the school. It was just as beautiful as the dojo, but it was definitely more exotic with that giant flower in the center of the room.

Fujisaki brightened up at the luckster’s arrival. He was standing over by some device that was stationed near what was apparently a chicken coop.

“Oh, hey, Naegi!” The programmer beamed happily. “This garden has sprinklers that turn on every morning! And it’s really bursting with life in here!”

Makoto chuckled sheepishly as he scratched his cheek and looked around. No joke – if there were any clues planted in here, it’d take them a while just to comb through everything.

“… So where’s Celes?” The luckster asked curiously as he got his bearings after a few moments. She didn’t seem to be anywhere in sight, and she wasn’t in any of the other rooms. Fujisaki blinked before pointing in one direction.

“There’s a shed that she wanted to check out!” The programmer helpfully explained.

Makoto nodded slowly, and decided to go check up on her. When he reached the shed, he found the gambler holding and staring at something. Was that…?

“Ah, Naegi-kun…” The gambler greeted, lowering the picture from her face. “This shed stood out to you as well, hmm?”

Makoto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

“Actually, I was just checking up on you… But I was a little curious, I guess…” He’d be lying if he wasn’t. A garden could hide secrets just about anywhere, but the shed was a decent enough place to start with. And speaking of things that made him curious… He frowned thoughtfully. “Hey, uh… Is that…?”

As he gestured at the item she was holding, Celes smiled wryly.

“It is exactly what you are thinking… Apparently you, Maizono, and Ikusaba weren’t lying or hallucinating about such a discovery. Though I must confess, this one has me… baffled.”

“Huh…?” The luckster couldn’t quite identify her tone. He ambled on over, and Celes offered him a peek of the photograph. Immediately he understood her befuddlement.

After all, it’s not every day you find yourself featured in a photograph that you don’t recall being taken at all. Up until this point, it had **just** been the victims portrayed in a very different looking kind of life. This image was no different in that regard – they were clearly standing outside, on a race track with metropolitan Tokyo captured in the background by office buildings and skyscrapers.

The subjects of the photo, which again included himself, were in track shorts and shirts. Apparently they’d just finished some relay race of sorts because they were standing next to flags in assembled teams. One team had him, Ishimaru, and Kuwata standing huddled together – Kuwata was kneeling at the base of the flag and grinning despite the second place indicator on the flag; Naegi and Ishimaru stood beside the baseball star, with Ishimaru slinging an arm around Naegi’s shoulders and grinning toothily as he did so. As expected of himself in such a situation, Naegi was smiling wryly a little bit, but still clearly enjoying himself.

The other team… featured Hagakure, Asahina, and Oogami. Hagakure had his arms crossed and was laughing boisterously, clearly ecstatic to be on the winning team. Oogami had Asahina perched on her shoulders, the swimmer flashing a ‘V for Victory’ sign, and the fighter was grinning proudly.

“…” Makoto just stared in bemusement. There was no two ways of slicing it – he did **not** remember taking this photo. He hadn’t known Ishimaru, Kuwata, Hagakure, Asahina, or Oogami before arriving at Hope’s Peak. There was no possible way he would have encountered such amazing people and forgotten about it! The only classmate he knew before coming, and that was very loosely, was Maizono.

Makoto was a completely average, run of the mill boy that you could find in any high school. The fact he won that lottery to get into Hope’s Peak had been a miracle in itself. So why… did Monokuma leave such a photo lying around, waiting to be found?

“I take it you don’t recall taking that photo…?” Celes asked out of respect for him. The luckster knew that the natural thing was to doubt him with the evidence in front of them, but oddly enough, he didn’t see any suspicion in her eyes. Her stare was a discerning one, clearly waiting for any reactions on his part, but it was like she already knew what he was gonna say and believed him. That was the sense he got.

“No! I don’t!” The brunet shook his head firmly, staring down at the photograph again. “Believe me, if I recalled anything like this… If I’d known any of you guys, I would’ve told you long before now!”

To his relief, Celes nodded slowly, hands on her hips.

“… I believe you.” The gambler assured her friend. She looked off to the side. “I know how to read people. You never have been all that hard to decipher – quite the open book, in fact. You keep secrets when they matter, but those moments are rare and far in-between. Even if Monokuma coerced you into silence… I get the sense you would have tried to hint at the truth, somehow.”

Makoto scratched his cheek sheepishly. He sagged a bit in disappointment, though.

“Y-Yeah… that’s exactly it!” An open book? Really?

… The dry look she gave him basically confirmed it. He pouted. Not that that did anything to dissuade her... But it made him feel better to have a pity party with himself. Just a little.

No wonder Maizono always teased him with that ‘esper’ stuff…

“Still…” Celes continued thoughtfully. “I do wonder what Monokuma stands to gain by such an obvious ploy? If you didn’t take the photo, it’s obviously doctored.”

Not to mention, the theme up until now had been victims portrayed in photos together… Was Naegi’s presence supposed to be some kind of foreshadowing?

_‘Preposterous.’_ The gambler deadpanned to herself. Nobody amongst the current survivors wanted Naegi-kun dead. Even Togami was coming around. Ikusaba was apparently disturbed from recent events, but Celes had faith Naegi-kun would keep her in line. This supposed foreshadowing was more of a bad joke, probably borne out of the fact that only Oogami died during this last round… _‘Monokuma must be getting bored. Or desperate.’_

Or both.

And just like all the times before, the bear appeared soon after they arrived at such a conclusion…

“Doctored?!” The monochrome bear exclaimed, flabbergasted. “… How did **you** lot know my alter ego was Doctor Killgood?! Like seriously! … You’re good. I’ve been hiding that for years…”

Both Makoto and Celes deadpanned at the bear’s usual childish antics. He just… didn’t know when to quit.

“Let me guess – you’re gonna tell us this photo is real.” The luckster flatly muttered.

Monokuma tilted his head curiously at the brunet.

“Hmm? Conspiracy theories again? Gosh, I guess you never outgrow your childhood, huh? Do you still think aliens built the pyramids? Or that Atlantis is still out there somewhere? … Or that pineapple goes on pizza?”

Celes rolled her eyes.

“There’s a fine line between conspiracies and… **this** …” The gambler deadpanned. “If you’re trying to cause dissension in our ranks again, you could have selected a better target. I might have given it some thought if you’d chosen **anyone** else besides Naegi-kun or myself…”

Monokuma hung his head miserably.

“I **don’t** believe this…! Such ludicrous, unfounded accusations! These precious moments of youth are **exactly as you see them**! Such ungrateful brats!” The bear swiped the photo, as he always did, and moodily turned his back on the two. “Hmph! If you don’t wanna play nice, I’m going home! And you can forget about that second date, ‘cause this relationship is **over**!”

Just like that, Monokuma departed. Makoto sweatdropped at the nonsensical rambling. Was all of that supposed to mean something…?

“Don’t.” Celes deadpanned, as if reading his mind. “The headache is not worth it.”

Sweatdropping again, Makoto nodded reluctantly. She was probably right. For all his “hints”, Monokuma loved to ramble as well. That’s what made it hard to determine what was important and what wasn’t… Still, it seemed safe to ignore him, this time.

… That picture **still** bothered him, though. Image editing software had come a long way in recent years, but that photo… Something bothered him about it. He just couldn’t put his finger on it.

Turning his attention to the rest of the shed to occupy his troubled mind, the luckster appraised what was left to examine.

“Not a whole lot in here besides that photo, huh…?” The brunet mused aloud. Celes shook her head.

“No, there doesn’t appear to be…” She murmured in assent.

Makoto paused as his eyes landed on a particular tool in the corner. It was an unassuming pickaxe, but the logo scrawled on it stood out to him.

“Hang on a sec… ‘Crazy Diamonds’…?”

Celes’s eyebrows rose curiously as well. That was a very familiar name to both of them… A certain someone would be interested to hear about this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MHJoker4Ever: How can the world know fear – true dread – when there is you? A stalwart knight, ever ready to slay monsters. Fear isn’t true biology. It’s more than instinct. True fear is the absence of hope. And hope is the ability to never give in, to believe in others until the bitter end... Hope is like a beacon, shining on the clouds... 
> 
> *Scarecrow's rants are 100% applicable to Chapter 5...don't you judge me*
> 
> Poor, poor broken Muku... :( I am just torturing myself by writing her like this, but still. IT WILL BE WORTH IT. ... I must keep telling myself that. lol
> 
> ... I really dunno how long this one's gonna be. As you all know, Chapter 5's incident began 3 days after fifth floor opened up. Not a whole lot of Free Time to get into. ... Which is fine by itself, 'cause we don't need TOO much padding by this point. 
> 
> ... But still~... You've gotta wonder what I've drummed up to replace the shenanigans from canon. :3 Muku's alive and kicking. Most of the corpses are impossible to reuse. Makoto, Kyoko, and Mukuro are still on Junko's List for expulsion. Hell, Junko doesn't even have Muku as a faithful pawn anymore; she's broken, but she's leaning the opposite way now. How does Junko intend to rectify this situation...? Hmm... :3


	23. Chapter 5, Part 2: Smile at Despair in the Name of Hope

_Makoto had winced when he heard the first clap of thunder go off nearby. He sagged when the first droplets started dropping down. And in minutes, he was really lamenting the decision to not bring an umbrella… The torrent he found himself in was not pleasant. He felt completely waterlogged, and was chilled to the bone… The crisp evening air was not helping matters._

_But he supposed that it was all deserved, really. After what happened that afternoon… He felt so dirty. Maizono wouldn’t be happy, that was for sure… And that was why he needed to go out for a walk – to clear his head, and hopefully find a way to make it up to her… even if that was probably impossible._

‘I’m so sorry… Maizono…’ _The luckster thought to himself in anguish, strolling through the park despite his instincts wanting to find shelter. Eventually, he stopped by a fountain toward the middle of the park. He stared down at his murky, rippling reflection, and felt every bit of the despondency he saw in his own eyes._

_When Sayaka had confessed to him within the first couple months of their time at Hope’s Peak, he truly felt like for once, his Ultimate title was fitting. Of course, with Sayaka’s career, that happiness did come with some conditions – for her sake, their relationship had to remain top secret. At first, not even their friends and family could know; but as time went on, it proved impossible to keep from their innermost ring of friends. Then again, with an Ultimate Detective in their class, why had they even tried in the first place…?_

_But still. Makoto put forth an admirable effort for the idol. No one outside their class, sans his family, knew about their relationship. And that was something he was inordinately proud of because of his own honest and upfront nature. He was deathly afraid of slipping up and ruining everything for his girlfriend, his idol._

_… Only now, the secrets were catching up with him._

‘Guess Maizono and Fukawa weren’t that far off when they said I was ‘popular’…’ _The luckster thought morosely to himself as he cupped the cheek where he could still feel the phantom sensations of soft lips._

_He wasn’t really popular, not in the traditional sense of the word. Some girls just found him… cute, and this one acquaintance from his old high school couldn’t control herself when they ended up reuniting in a nearby mall. It wasn’t real love… not yet anyway, but she was eager to see where they could go, since he was ‘single’, and she was single. Makoto suspected his acceptance into Hope’s Peak had a lot to do with it, as he recalled this particular girl had been pretty shallow…_

_But even so. Where had his head been? Allowing that girl to steal that kiss… if she’d been any bolder, he really would have been in hot water. Maizono was going to be disappointed enough as it was… and the worst part was, he knew her latest show had gone pretty well. How could he be the bearer of such awful news? Then again… he had no right to hide his sin from her. Not when he screwed up **this** badly…_

_Makoto sighed raggedly and closed his eyes calmly. He reluctantly allowed a few tears to escape, since the rain would obscure them to any passersby. … Not that there would be anyone crazy enough as him to be out in this weather…_

_The brunet tensed as he felt a pair of slender arms wrap around his waist. Up next was a blue head of hair resting on his shoulder from behind. Even in this torrent, she was so soft… and he could catch the faintest whiffs of that scent he loved with all his heart…_

_“M-M-Maizono…?” The luckster stammered, completely taken off-guard. Wasn’t she supposed to be back this upcoming weekend…? Her latest show had been pretty far from central Tokyo…_

_“Komaru told me what happened.” The idol murmured softly, pressing against him consolingly. “I got back as soon as I could.”_

_Makoto winced at the strings that must have taken to pull off._

‘Damnit, Komaru…!’ _He’d wanted to break it to the idol, himself. She deserved that much._

_The luckster sagged in shame._

_“I’m sorry… it was all my fault.” He admitted to everything, voice laden with regret. “I-I didn’t feel anything for her, b-but… I should have stopped her, and I’m **so sorry** , Sayaka…!”_

_The idol smiled bitterly and nuzzled into his shoulder._

_“Look at that, you can use my given name out in the open now… I’m glad.” The bluenette teased, or tried to, before shaking her head sadly. “… No, Makoto… This is entirely on me. My fault for putting you in an unreasonable position and soldiering it alone… Don’t you dare apologize for that!”_

_Makoto’s heart went out to the poor girl as her voice cracked. He took ahold of her hands and stroked them gently._

_“It’s… It’s not your fault, Sayaka… Your dream…” He trailed off helplessly. The idol only shook her head again._

_“… Isn’t worth your suffering.” His girlfriend replied firmly._

_Makoto’s eyes became downcast as he looked down._

_“O-Oh… S-So we should… probably take a break for now…” He tried to keep the downtrodden tone out of his voice; if this was what Sayaka decided, he’d have to support her. He could always deal with the pain later… when he was alone…_

_A sigh._

_“You dummy…” The idol buried her head in his shoulder and hugged him tighter, confusing the luckster. “You’ve been so patient with me, so understanding and supportive… You **really** think I’m just going to let you break up with me…?”_

_Makoto flushed in embarrassment._

_“B-B-But…! I’m more trouble than I’m worth…!” The brunet argued. “I know how important that dream is to you, Sayaka!”_

_The idol grinned mischievously into his shoulder._

_“Then you’ll have to help me find a bigger, better dream than that… I’m not giving you up, Makoto. Not even if Hope’s Peak could guarantee I could be an idol forever and ever.”_

_The luckster could feel butterflies fluttering in his chest at her words and tone._

_“You… really mean that…?”_

_Sayaka finally turned him around to face her. He thought it was pretty cute how they were both out in nothing but hoodies and jeans in this kind of weather – hers pink, his black – and he tried to keep such thoughts to himself, but he figured the light blush on his face was probably a dead giveaway…_

_“Stardom never lasts, Makoto. But love can.” Sayaka began blushing herself, smiling bashfully. “You’ll help me, won’t you…?”_

_… She didn’t even need to ask._

_“O-Of course…!” His cheeks were on fire now, but he was determined to hold Sayaka’s gaze. It was his way of showing how serious he was in supporting her. A rush of emotions passed between them – love, passion, determination, regret, joy… Eventually, the idol couldn’t stand it, and glomped him in another comforting hug. The luckster rubbed her back soothingly, and closed his eyes as he allowed a few more tears to escape. “Th-Thanks…”_

_“For what?” The bluenette asked, slightly curious._

_“… For everything…” The luckster eventually settled on, smiling enigmatically. He really was lucky to have her. Makoto paused as a thought occurred to him. “Hey… I get that Komaru told you about happened… But how’d you find me?”_

_He lived in the dorms at Hope’s Peak, since his family wasn’t that fortunate to live in central Tokyo. And he was pretty sure no one had seen him leaving to take a walk…_

_The luckster could feel that teasing grin embedded in his shoulder. He should have known better…_

_“I thought you knew by now~… I’m an esper!” The idol chirped._

_He’d heard the joke enough by now that he should have been tired of it, but Makoto smiled wryly instead of deadpanning._

_“Kidding, you just have good intuition, right?”_

_A beat._

_“Maybe with everyone else. But with you and you alone, I’m blessed with being able to read your mind, anytime, anywhere~…” Sayaka giggled as the boy stiffened in her arms. Teasing him was always such fun~_

_Makoto, meanwhile, was left dearly hoping she wasn’t serious. That… that really would be kind of scary, if she were psychic with **only him** … Just when he thinks he’s got her worked out, she throws him a curveball…_

_He wouldn’t have it any other way, though. … Even if he probably would get a heart attack one of these days… from just one joke…_

~*~

Sometime later, the eight of them met back up in the cafeteria.

“Looks like we’re all here…” Togami noted, his arms crossed over his chest. Mondo grunted in annoyance.

“You say that, but eight of us is basically half of what we started with… It ain’t cool.”

“I-I hope no one else dies…” Fujisaki mumbled besides the biker.

Sayaka adopted a determined face.

“Hey, we don’t have time to be depressed right now! We have to do everything we can, for the sake of those who didn’t make it! Right, Makoto?”

As the idol beamed at him, the luckster rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

“Y-You’re right…”

Togami snorted.

“Are we about done licking each other’s wounds? Then let’s get started on with reports.”

The heir ignored the annoyed and deadpan expressions he received, and Mondo kicked off the meeting with what he investigated.

“I checked out all the windows in the classrooms, like usual.” The biker rubbed the back of his head, gritting his teeth. “They’re all locked down, go figure. Those iron plates weren’t for screwin’ around…”

“There’s no way out through the fifth floor, then…” Kirigiri nodded her head slowly, as if expecting it.

“I did notice something about the structure of the school, though.” Mondo remarked, scowling. Makoto raised an eyebrow curiously.

“What’d you notice, Oowada?”

“Did you actually explore the fifth floor, Naegi?” Kirigiri deadpanned. “If you had, you would have noticed – what the other floors have that the fifth floor doesn’t.”

Makoto’s brow furrowed.

“Are you talking about… stairs…?” The luckster wondered aloud. “As I recall, there was no staircase going up on the fifth floor, was there?”

Celes placed her hands on her hips.

“So the fifth floor is the end…”

“We’ve finally seen it all – the whole academy…” Kirigiri mused.

“All that’s left is to crack the mysteries hidden within…” Togami smirked.

Mondo rolled his eyes.

“That’s not gonna be a cakewalk... We’ve been trapped in here for weeks and barely made any progress!”

“If it’s not a cakewalk yet, then we’ll make it a cake-crawl!” Sayaka tried alleviating the mood. “We’ll work our way up to that walk!”

Makoto scratched his cheek sheepishly at the corny joke.

“Sh-She’s right… We’ll be fine, I know it! As long as we work together, we’ll be able to pull something off!”

_‘I swear we’ll get out of this! We have to!’_ The luckster added silently, to himself.

“I’m curious to know what’s in the **biology lab** …” Kirigiri continued the reports. “It’s the only room that was sealed on the fifth floor.”

“A biology lab, huh?” Fujisaki asked curiously. “I wonder what could be inside?”

“Something messed up, I’ll bet…” Mondo scowled. “A place like that? It’s probably like a mad scientist’s lab in there…”

“In any case, there’s no need to think too hard about it right now.” Togami decided for them all. “There’s no point in wasting your brainpower pondering unanswerable questions. And with your limited mental faculties, you would all do well to pay mind to just **how** it gets used.”

The biker growled lowly.

“Sounds like **someone** wants their teeth smashed in…!”

“Wording aside, you make a fair point…” Celes mused.

Togami scoffed.

“There’s nothing wrong with how I worded it.”

… Before they could escalate into arguments, Fujisaki continued with what he discovered.

“There’s a botanical garden on the fifth floor! There’s lots of interesting stuff there!” The programmer beamed happily. “There’s a giant flower in there! I’ve never seen one that big. There’s also sprinklers that go off automatically each morning at 7:30… And there’s a chicken coop with five chickens in it!”

Sayaka’s eyes sparkled as Chihiro brought that up.

“Aww! We’ll have to keep an eye on those little guys! They must’ve been lonely, all this time…”

Mondo grinned toothily, giving a thumb’s-up.

“Yeah! If we raise those dudes right, we can just cook ‘em up if food supplies are down!”

Sayaka and Chihiro looked aghast at the suggestion. Celes just shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly.

“We may need to, if we’re trapped in here for that long…” The gambler acknowledged the possibility. “At any rate… There was also a shed in that garden, filled with tools.”

Makoto rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“Oh yeah… There was that pickaxe…”

“Pickaxe…?” Togami repeated, arching an eyebrow.

“There’s a pickaxe in the shed of that garden. It’s got the phrase ‘Crazy Diamonds’ carved into the handle!” The luckster revealed. Mondo recoiled at that revelation.

“Y-You serious?! The hell, man?! What’s my pickaxe doin’ up there?” The biker demanded and raised a twitching hand in aggravation. “That little bastard… I swear he steals the most random shit!”

Sayaka’s eyebrows rose in curiosity.

“A pickaxe…? What do you have one of those for, Oowada-kun?”

Mondo dropped his arm to his side and scowled.

“I don’t think I’ve told any of you guys yet… But I’ve put some thought into what I’m gonna do when the Crazy Diamonds disband someday. I’m gonna be the most badass carpenter you’ve ever seen!” He grinned toothily and gave another thumb’s-up. “So yeah! That’s why I got a pickaxe! Pretty cool, huh?”

Cue sweatdrops from Makoto, Sayaka, and Chihiro. The connection between the two details couldn’t be any more obscure.

“I’m just going to ask so we can get this out of the way…” Celes heaved a sigh. “… But what do pickaxes have to do with carpentry, again…?”

Mondo blinked in shock at the question.

“You serious? Are you just sayin’ that to mess with me? I thought it was pretty obvious!”

Kirigiri cupped her chin, narrowing her eyes thoughtfully.

“I… suppose a carpenter can be tied to construction work as well… Sometimes a site will need to be prepared, clearing out underground boulders, leftover foundations, etc…” The mysterious girl frowned, trying to piece it together.

Mondo grinned at the lilac-haired girl.

“You got it in one! You’re really smart, Kirigiri!” The biker laughed.

… Such a bizarre connection…

“At **any** rate…” Togami deadpanned. “Did you all see the **unusual classroom** on the fifth floor? No, ‘unusual’ doesn’t quite do it justice… The scent of human flesh and blood permeating that room… The countless human-shaped outlines… Far more gruesome than any other room we’ve seen here.”

“I beg your pardon…?” Celes arched an eyebrow skeptically. Makoto looked down in dismay.

“It’s true, Celes… Classroom 5-C was a warzone… I’d say it was even worse than what we saw when Oogami was killed.”

Celes’s mouth flattened into a thin line as she processed that information. Oogami’s murder had been violent enough as it was… Fujisaki shivered and hugged himself in dread, as did Maizono, who had seen the room for herself.

“The stench was awful, too…” Togami continued on. “Far beyond any of our murder scenes. An amalgam of every imaginable bodily fluid…”

“I-I’m glad I didn’t peek in there…” Fujisaki shivered. “I feel just awful, hearing you describe it…!”

“What could’ve happened in there…?” Celes wondered.

Togami raised a finger to his temple thoughtfully.

“Call it a hunch, but most likely… **a great deal of people** died in that room.”

“A-A bunch of people… d-died in there…” Sayaka echoed, her eyes glazing over as the memories of that room assaulted her. Makoto massaged her shoulders consolingly, and the idol instinctively leaned back into the luckster for comfort.

“I-I think I’m going to be sick…!” Fujisaki mumbled, quivering like a leaf.

“Perhaps that’s where… **The Biggest, Most Tragic, Most Despair-Inducing Incident in Human History** occurred…”

“What…?” Makoto asked in shock. Byakuya smirked.

“It seems you and I are on the same page. Yes, it’s possible that the massacre that happened in that room is the ‘Incident’ from a year ago…”

_‘The cause of that gruesome scene… was the Incident that happened a year ago?’_ Makoto wondered to himself in dismay.

“In other words, the ‘Incident’ refers to **the mass murder of Hope’s Peak Academy’s students**. With that in mind… we can explain why Hope’s Peak Academy was forced to shut down.” Togami pointed his finger powerfully.

“It makes sense…” Mondo rubbed the back of his head, staring down in disbelief. “But still, that’s fucked up, man…”

“It’s **evil** …!” Sayaka whispered, horrified.

_‘It’s hopelessly evil…’_ Makoto agreed silently. _‘But still… why hasn’t anyone here heard about this, if it was such a huge incident?_ _Maybe… it really was hidden from the public…’_

Out loud, Makoto gave the final report.

“Oh yeah…! There was one other thing we found up there, guys…”

Celes raised an eyebrow curiously.

“Naegi-kun… are you sure about this?” It would only serve to throw suspicion onto himself.

Makoto nodded firmly.

“Yeah, I’m sure… Do you remember the photos we found on the third and fourth floors? Well… Celes and I found another one.”

“Another one?!” Sayaka gasped.

Mukuro, who had stayed silent this whole time, blinked slowly.

“Another… photo…?” The soldier didn’t like the sound of this. Junko had a stockpile of photos to choose from, taken over the years for the purpose of sowing confusion like this, but still. Mukuro hadn’t thought her sister would press her luck a third time…

Makoto nodded again.

“This one was taken after some kind of relay race…” The luckster revealed. “Kuwata, Ishimaru, Oogami, Asahina, Hagakure, and I… we were all in the photo together. I was apparently on a team with Ishimaru and Kuwata, and the other three were a team!”

Mondo’s eyes widened in shock.

“Y-You… You were in a photo with bro?!”

“Wh-Why?!” Fujisaki asked, bewildered. “I-I thought Maizono was the only one you knew before coming here, Naegi…?”

The idol tilted her head curiously, but then dismissed the thought with a shake of her head. Her friend wouldn’t lie about something like that; and what’s more, none of the others gave any indication that they had known him. Makoto placed a hand over his chest emphatically.

“I promise, she was! I don’t know why Monokuma made that picture, either! I just know that I don’t remember ever taking a photo like that, so it had to be fake…!” It **had** to…

Kyoko cupped her chin and narrowed her eyes in thought.

“It’s highly possible those photos are just red herrings to throw us off… But without seeing them for myself, I can’t say for certain. Naegi, you’re the only one who’s seen all three photos up until this point. What do you make of them?”

Makoto looked down in shame, at a loss for what to say. That school festival, the sporting event, and now this relay race… He’d seen all of them, yes. But he didn’t have sharp eyes like Kirigiri – he wouldn’t be able to pick out any features that might have been edited or modified…

To him, the photos seemed real. But if that was true… how were they taken? **When** were they taken? Why was Monokuma leaving these out to be found, only to take them away right after…? It didn’t make sense.

At the luckster’s dismal silence, Togami sighed.

“I suppose that concludes the reports…”

Sayaka blinked as she realized everyone else seemed to have given their reports; she raised her hand urgently before they truly finished.

“H-Hold on, you guys…! I found something, too!” The idol revealed. Togami crossed his arms and stared dully at her.

“If it’s about the dojo, I’ve already seen it…” The heir paused as Maizono brought out the item she found. “… Well, then.”

Fujisaki and Oowada stared at the huge knife, gobsmacked.

“That’s a big fucking knife!” Mondo exclaimed.

“A **survival knife** …” Celes corrected the biker, narrowing her eyes at it. “Oogami had a couple of these stabbed into her. Anyone else would find it rather difficult to survive being stabbed by **that** …”

“I found it in one of the dojo’s lockers!” Sayaka explained.

Makoto’s brow furrowed.

“What was **that** doing in there…?” The luckster couldn’t help but ask.

Mukuro raised a shaky hand, looking a bit pale.

“Th-That’s… mine…” The soldier hesitantly revealed. She looked down anxiously as she felt Togami’s cold eyes and Kirigiri’s sharp, discerning ones were on her. “M-Monokuma must have found it and left it out for you all… S-Sorry…”

Togami snorted.

“Well, it’s **no longer** yours.” The heir told her pointedly. As if he’d be crazy enough to let the soldier have it or any other sharp tool ever again.

… And that reminded him that there were some knives in the kitchen, as well… That damn psychotic bear.

“As if it being in **your** hands is any better…” Celes deadpanned at Togami.

Mondo’s scowl deepened as he stared dryly at everyone.

“Well, Ikusaba, Togami, and Ludenberg can’t be anywhere near that thing… What’re we gonna do with it?”

“Why don’t we give it to Naegi?” Kirigiri suggested, out of the blue.

“Huh?! To me?!” Makoto yelped.

Mondo just burst into a big, wide grin as he gave another thumb’s-up.

“Sure, I got no problems with that!”

“A perfect match, indeed.” Celes smiled pleasantly, cupping her hands under her chin. Even Fujisaki breathed a sigh of relief.

“H-Hold on a second! Don’t I get **any** say?!” Makoto yelled out frantically. Sayaka frowned and found herself nodding along.

She trusted him completely. But leaving him with the knife… might make him a target later, if another killing ever ended up happening. And by the fierce scowl on Mukuro’s face and the disapproving aura around her, the soldier clearly felt the same way.

“This just goes to show how much they trust you.” Togami scoffed at the luckster’s objections. “Quit complaining and take it…”

_‘That’s trust? I feel like I’m just a convenient dumping ground…’_ Makoto deadpanned in his mind. _‘… I guess everyone’s in agreement, though… I’ll just have to put it in my desk drawer.’_

“… So what do we do now?” Mondo asked, now that all discoveries had been laid bare for the group. Togami raised a finger to his temple.

“Since, from here on, you guys will be working as my subordinates, there’s something I’d like made clear.” The heir ignored the growl from the biker, and any glares he received. He then pointed accusingly at the lilac-haired girl. “ **Kyoko Kirigiri**. Your true identity – you **will** tell us!”

Kirigiri closed her eyes calmly, but said nothing. Maizono tilted her head.

“Kirigiri? She’s… Kirigiri, isn’t she?”

“And who, exactly, is Kyoko Kirigiri?” Togami asked archly. “Each and every one of us has a clearly defined reason as to why we were selected to come to Hope’s Peak… Maizono is the **Ultimate Pop Idol**. Oowada is the **Ultimate Biker Gang Leader**. Ludenberg the **Ultimate Gambler** , Fujisaki the **Ultimate Programmer** , Ikusaba the **Ultimate** Soldier, Naegi the **Ultimate Lucky Student** , and me the **Ultimate Scion** …But what about Kirigiri? Is there anyone here who knows?”

A silence fell over the group. Mondo rubbed the back of his head.

“She never did tell us yet…”

“Sh-She doesn’t like talking about herself…” Fujisaki frowned thoughtfully.

“This isn’t a matter of what one likes or dislikes. This is a matter of trust.” Togami continued his momentum. “Can you trust someone who willfully hides their history from you? Start talking, Kirigiri… So as to not invite any unnecessary suspicion…”

A beat.

“… I can’t…” Kirigiri calmly replied.

Celes narrowed her eyes.

“Why would that be…?”

Kirigiri shook her head slowly.

I didn’t say I **wouldn’t** tell you… I said I **can’t** tell you…” Kirigiri specified.

“Wh-What do you mean?” Mondo asked.

“I don’t remember…” Kirigiri crossed her arms, looking off to the side. At Makoto’s gobsmacked expression, she added, “I have no memory of it.”

“You have no… You mean you have…!” Makoto trailed off in shock.

“ **Amnesia**?!” Sayaka finished for him.

Togami bared his teeth as he growled.

“It appears as though your sense of humor is sorely lacking. It’s amusing how unamusing that joke was…” The heir hissed.

“You’re serious…?” Celes arched an eyebrow skeptically.

Kirigiri shrugged nonchalantly.

“I knew you wouldn’t believe me… That’s why I didn’t say anything. But it doesn’t matter to me. Whether you believe me or not, the truth will come out soon enough…” She crossed her arms stubbornly, her eyes determined.

“So you intend to maintain your silence until the bitter end, then? Is that what this is?” Togami inclined his chin arrogantly. “Well, you’d best ‘forget’ about things going your way anymore…”

“What are you going to do? Torture me?” Kirigiri asked skeptically.

“I wouldn’t stoop to something so savage…” Togami snorted derisively. “I’m simply going to restrict your movements so you can’t do anything else suspicious…”

“Restrict my movements?” Kirigiri repeated.

“Hand over your room key.” Togami demanded heatedly.

Makoto’s eyes bulged in shock at the demand.

“Her room key? If she gives you that…”

“But it’s against the rules to sleep outside a bedroom!” Fujisaki cried. “She won’t be able to sleep!”

Togami shrugged uncaringly.

“If she doesn’t like it, she can talk. It should be simple enough – she just needs to tell us about herself.”

Makoto frowned in disapproval.

“H-Hold on, what’s threatening her going to…?” He was cut off by the mysterious girl.

“All right, fine.”

Togami smirked victoriously.

“It seems she had a change of heart. You going to talk now?” Without a word, Kirigiri approached the heir. And then she handed him her room key. Togami snarled at the bold gesture. “You – why? Why are you… so insistent… on your silence?”

“I told you this once already… Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t tell you anything.” Kirigiri smiled enigmatically, closing her eyes.

“Does this mean you’re serious, Kirigiri…? About your amnesia?” Sayaka asked softly.

“If ya think about it, it isn’t impossible…” Mondo muttered. “In this messed up place, a lot of shit went down, so a little memory loss isn’t that far-fetched by this point…”

Kirigiri frowned at the biker’s words, repeating parts that troubled her.

“’In this messed up place, a lot of shit went down’… Is that really all that happened, though? Can you say for sure everything that happened here was so awful…?”

“H-Huh…?” The luckster stammered in confusion. Kirigiri just shook her head.

“I think I’ve said too much....” Without a word, the mysterious girl began to walk off.

Togami snarled at her.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Don’t worry. I won’t do anything to get in your way…” And those were her last words… Kirigiri’s last words… The sound of the closing door resonated throughout the silent cafeteria.

Fujisaki stared down sadly at the turn of events.

“W-We’re going too far… again…”

Mondo clenched a fist and raised it at Togami.

“Bastard! Go give her back her room key! We ain’t repeating Oogami all over again…!”

Togami crossed his arms, looking away shrewdly.

“… I can’t back down now. She’s… bluffing. **She has to be**.” The heir insisted.

Celes arched an eyebrow skeptically, hands on her hips.

“I seem to recall you having the same attitude during Oogami’s trial… Are you really so eager for a repeat of your failure?”

Togami clenched a fist and bared his teeth at the gambler, glaring heatedly at her.

“Except this **isn’t** like that time! There’s no trial. And as far as we know, she couldn’t have a status as troubling as Ikusaba’s! She has **no** reason to withhold the truth from us! No matter how you look at it, an excuse as pitifully weak as amnesia… She **has** to be bluffing!”

Sayaka stared down at the floor miserably, an action mirrored by Makoto.

“But Kirigiri hasn’t lied to us, Togami…” The idol mumbled. Put Makoto in danger, yes. Been reserved about her findings, yes. But Kyoko didn’t **lie** … If anything, she always helped find the truth in each trial!

“I said **give back that key** , asshole…!” Mondo shouted, advancing on the heir, cocking his fist back to strike.

Togami took a step back cautiously, scowling. Oowada wouldn’t strike – not so long as the crybaby Fujisaki was there to quell him. That was Togami’s assessment.

… But it appeared that assessment was wrong. Because Oowada had had enough of all the betrayals, doubts, and scorn. He actually swung his fist this time… And might have connected, had the luckster not gotten in-between him and his target. The biker’s eyes widened at the sudden change, but was too late to restrain himself. He winced as he prepared to repeat history… Even the same people were involved.

… Amazingly enough, his fist connected with something firm and unyielding. It wrapped itself around his fist and held it there. Mondo, daring to look at what he hit, was surprised to see Mukuro standing there, glaring crossly at him. Her palm had caught his fist with ease, and she wasn’t struggling in the slightest to hold him back.

The biker stared in awe and a little trepidation. After all, not only had he almost punched Naegi’s lights out… again… He had **hit a girl**. A girl that could beat his ass black and blue, but still very much a girl…

“Fuck… Fuck fuck fuck…” Oowada quickly reeled in his arm and backed away fearfully. That whole ‘man’s honor’ thing of his? Yeah… He’d sunken to a new low, and he could feel it.

Makoto dipped his head sadly, looking back slightly at the heir.

“Togami… I know it’s hard. Your whole life, you’ve known competition; people are in it for themselves, therefore everyone’s hiding something.” The luckster craned his head more to face the heir directly. “Is that about right?”

Togami chewed at his nails, adopting an uncertain expression as he knew Naegi was about to make a case for the opposite. And terrifyingly enough, Naegi’s words did have weight, even if the luckster couldn’t have known the **trials** he’d gone through to learn that lesson…

"Listen, I… I won’t criticize you for believing that.” Makoto mumbled, looking down sadly. “I don’t have a right to judge your way of thinking as ‘wrong’… But Togami, we can’t keep doing this – latching onto the next suspicious person and pressuring them. We can’t give Monokuma an opening to screw us over again!”

“So essentially, you **are** arguing to place my full trust in her, unflinchingly.” The Togami heir gnashed his teeth. Makoto shook his head, much to the heir’s shock.

“I don’t think trust works like that, Togami… It’s not blind faith that I’m asking from you. If you don’t have doubts, you’re not stopping to seriously consider who that person, that friend is.” The brunet clenched a fist in determination. “If I’d been more doubtful like you, maybe things would be different. Maybe some of our friends would still be with us.”

Celes and Mukuro tensed at this, and looked down at the floor with unreadable expressions. Mondo rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, and Chihiro stared down sadly. Even Sayaka hugged herself as she recalled what she had contemplated on doing, even before anyone else had made a move…

Makoto shook his head again.

“But even so. I do have doubts at times, even if I don’t want to think about them. The key… is that I don’t let those doubts rule me. Because if I can’t believe in the sides that they show to me, how can I ever keep moving forward?!” Makoto spun around and faced Byakuya, a hand over his chest passionately. “ **I don’t know Kirigiri** , but I’m willing to believe in her because she’s helped keep us alive! She works harder to investigate the truths about this academy than any of us have! When Kuwata killed Yamada, didn’t she humor you and go get that evidence you claimed to have left in the art room? Didn’t she stand up for you, when people doubted your innocence in the last trial? She’s secretive, but Kirigiri has always been on our side! Even if you doubt her, isn’t torturing her to get what you want just… wrong?”

An uneasy silence followed Makoto’s tirade. Byakuya’s face remained uncertain as he chewed at his nails, but eventually, his posture loosened and he crossed his arms, frowning. He then uttered words that stunned them all.

“I will… consider your position, Naegi.” He raised a finger to his temple. “… But not tonight. I will need at least one night to… ruminate.”

Makoto’s shoulders relaxed, and he smiled gratefully at the heir, even when he turned around and bid them all a good night. That was honestly a compromise he could agree to. He turned back to face the others, who still seemed a bit down from the heavy topic.

“S-Sorry, guys… It’ll get better. I promise.” He scratched his cheek sheepishly.

At the luckster’s words, Sayaka straightened her back and stared with wide eyes as an idea came to her. With haste, the idol voiced it. She was Makoto’s Ultimate Assistant, and it was clear he wanted to cheer them up, so this was now her time to shine…

~*~

“Ashita no machiawase no basho wo toku ni kimenai mama ni baibai~… Ofuro ni haittetemo sowasowa isso denwa shichaou kana dokidoki tomannai~! Toururu yobidashi nikaime no kooru yatto kikoeta kimi no koe iro nanka munyamunya de ‘ohayo’…!” The light, upbeat, bubbly voice rang throughout the music room. The hips of the idol shook and swayed rhythmically as she danced upon that stage, a carefree grin spread wide across her face.

The size of her audience was paltry compared to the usual throngs that paid an arm and a leg to see her live, but Sayaka didn’t care about any of that. These were her friends, and they needed their spirits lifted. Some of them weren’t even fans of hers, let alone the pop music genre, yet they still supported her by being there. Oowada, Fujisaki, Celes, even Togami who had planned to retire for the evening – they were spread out in the rows of seats, but they were all still **there**. The very least she could do was sing her heart out and give them a performance.

And Makoto? Well… Someone needed to run the sound system, just to make sure everything ran smoothly. Thankfully, with Sayaka’s talent, there wasn’t all that much he had to keep an eye out for. She gave him a rundown of the system anyway, because it was the least she could do when he offered to help her out like this.

The luckster grinned sheepishly as he peered at his sole companion in the sound booth. She was still watching him with such intense focus… And he knew her by now that gaze didn’t necessarily mean she wanted to talk, but…

“Oh, hey… I never did thank you for earlier!” The brunet bashfully remarked.

Mukuro blinked slowly, incomprehensibly.

“… For what, Naegi-kun?”

Makoto rubbed the back of his neck.

“You know, for helping defuse Oowada and Togami. I mean, I was ready to take another hit from Oowada if it meant calming him down, but I know that still would have caused discord amongst everyone… Well, I know that now, anyway. At the time, I just wanted to do everything I could to stop Oowada from hitting Togami…” He chuckled in embarrassment.

Mukuro stared at the luckster with an unreadable expression.

“You didn’t even have to ask, Naegi-kun… I failed to protect you once already, and I wasn’t going to allow you to get hurt again…” She dipped her head in a mixture of shame, shyness, and embarrassment. “B-Besides, I’m still a bit… angry with Oowada about almost punching you… S-So… I know you probably don’t appreciate that…”

Despite the concession, Makoto kept up his smile. He turned his head forward, back to the sound system to watch it dutifully.

“Ya don’t hafta be nervous about something like that, Ikusaba… You’re just looking out for me!” He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. “I mean, I’d **like** it if you and Oowada could get along, but you’re your own person! I don’t get along with everyone all the time, either. Maizono-chan still doesn’t like Celes all that much, and Togami’s… Togami. But despite it all, we’re all friends!”

_“We’re all friends!”_

Mukuro flinched at that memory bursting unbidden into her mind. She felt conflicted about Naegi-kun using the same line as a student who killed her classmates and got killed in turn… But even so, when Naegi-kun said it, the words carried… a profound weight. Much more so than that hopeless girl that got slaughtered.

The soldier shuffled her feet anxiously, keeping her gaze averted.

“I… I’ll try, Naegi-kun.” And that was really the best she could offer. Even if Naegi-kun had proven himself, had proven he transcended the rest of the human race with that gentle, unrelenting kindness of his, he was… an exception. No matter how much she tried to imagine it, she couldn’t picture their classmates living up to his shining example.

They’d already turned their backs on her once already, and maybe with good reason since they wouldn’t be in this mess if it wasn’t for her.

“Monokuroomuna mirai iie furukaraa futari nara kirakira ni nareru~ Monokuroomuna kyori de tokeatte ikeba karafuru~ Hakkiri shinai soko mo suki yo… Hakkiri shiteru kotae itte~…!”

Mukuro’s eyes softened as she gazed down at her hands. Maybe that was just her past experiences and Junko talking, however. They… they did apologize, after all. And they seemed to accept her as a member of the group – even Togami did. Maybe she could give them a second chance. They’d been classmates for two years, after all…

The soldier slowly raised her head to gaze at Makoto’s back.

… But regardless, Naegi-kun would be the highest priority… The **very highest priority** …

Close to the entrance to the music room, Kyoko gave a closed-eyes smile as Monochrome Answer came to a close, and Sayaka switched to her next song. As quietly as she had entered, she left without so much as a word to anyone…

~*~

Later that evening, after the nighttime announcement rang out and they all returned to the dorms on the first floor, Makoto and Sayaka found themselves to be the last ones loitering in the hall. To be more specific, Makoto had been the last one to come down, cleaning up the music room out of habit (Ikusaba had tried to stay and assist him, but the luckster assured her that he could handle it and to get a good night’s sleep), and the idol was waiting for him between their two bedrooms, leaning against the wall. She smiled when she caught sight of him.

“M-Maizono…!” Makoto exclaimed, coming to a stop a couple feet away from her.

Sayaka pushed herself off the wall and clasped her hands behind her back. She beamed at him in gratitude.

“Thanks for today, Makoto!” The idol started simply.

Makoto tilted his head curiously, perplexed by her words and feelings.

“For what? I didn’t do anything.” Not anything that he considered needing thanks, anyway.

“You helped calm me down again, when we found that classroom!” Sayaka reminded the boy. “And you helped me with my little show! How could I **not** thank you?”

Makoto chuckled sheepishly, smiling wryly.

“I-I’m sure anyone else would have done the same thing… Friends do that for each other, right?”

The idol looked up at the ceiling contemplatively, a wistful smile on her face.

“Friends, huh… Yeah, I suppose we are… The best of friends…”

Makoto frowned in concern as she trailed off and didn’t say anything for several moments.

“M-Maizono…?”

It still took some time before Sayaka was able to reply.

“Makoto… If it’s not too much trouble, could you…?” A light pink tinted her cheeks as she tried to compose herself. “Could you call me Sayaka…?”

Makoto felt his own cheeks heating up at the earnest request.

“H-Huh…? Wh-Where’s this coming from…?” The luckster asked, a little baffled.

Sayaka just grinned at him.

“I’ve been calling you ‘Makoto’ all this time, right? Isn’t it fair to let you go by my given name, too? O-Or… am I being too selfish…?” The idol averted her eyes a little nervously.

Makoto shook his head rapidly.

“N-N-No…! No, no, of course not! I-I can call you wh-whatever you want, M-Mai…” The brunet coughed, correcting himself. “I-I mean, S-Sayaka… Really! I-It’s not too much trouble at all! I-I was just worried about being too… informal…”

Sayaka giggled at his flustered state.

“I figured… You’re the kind of guy to be super careful and respectful, and I’m flattered, really!” The idol blushed a little more as she beamed, eyes closed. “I just think you’re silly for worrying about small stuff like that, s-so I wanted to make it easier for you!”

Makoto rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

“Y-You don’t hafta go that far for me… I’m just an average joe… just a friend…”

Sayaka’s eyes softened as she reopened them and stared at him.

“My **best** friend.” She corrected him. Because it was the truth. Her idol group was still near and dear to her heart, but they were also her rivals when it came down to it… Makoto had no such drawbacks going for him. She could tell him anything, and he wouldn’t tell a soul; she could release all her pent-up worries and doubts, and he was right there to lend a shoulder for her to cry on. And it was for those reasons… “You… matter… You matter so much to me, Makoto…”

Her heart ached so much. Not because of anything Makoto had done – but because even now, even while they were alone… she **still couldn’t say those damn words to him**! Just three simple little words. She was such a coward. Early on, she used the excuse that she had to ‘put those feelings on hold’ until they escaped… Because that **was** a priority to have…

… But if she’d learned **anything** at all, time was not a luxury in this place. Survival was not guaranteed, and Makoto kept sticking his neck out when he could get hurt or worse…! Sayaka **knew** this, and she still… she still couldn’t utter those three simple words. She didn’t even have an excuse, not one she could think of off the top of her head.

Such a coward…

The idol blinked in surprise when she felt Makoto’s hand on her shoulder, prompting her to look up at him.

“You matter to me, too!” Makoto smiled at her innocently. “You really saved me, Sayaka! I wouldn’t have made it this far without you! So… thanks.”

Sayaka melted at the sincerity in his voice, and her eyes watered. Unexpectedly for him, the idol threw herself into his arms and cried into his shoulder again. She was ever grateful for his comforting embrace.

Even if she lacked the courage to say those words to him right here… Sayaka wasn’t going to give up. She **would** tell him someday... Someday soon. Her heart agonized over it, but she had to be patient. If she confessed now, the weight would be lifted off her shoulders, sure… But Makoto would be the one to suffer the crushing weight instead; even if he did reciprocate, he’d feverishly work himself to the bone to help her escape… because he promised her he would, and Makoto always took his promises so seriously…

**She couldn’t do that to him**. No matter how wonderful the relationship would be, Sayaka couldn’t make him suffer like that when they were still trapped… She’d never be able to live with herself.

That was her excuse now.

… Such a coward.

~*~

A blonde girl with pigtails sat lazily in a chair, observing the wall of security monitors. Monokuma sat nestled in her lap. The girl’s eyes were trained on a particular monitor – had been for some time.

Slowly, the girl’s face morphed into a Cheshire grin. An aura of malice surrounded her like a dense fog.

“All of them…? In one fell swoop…? I can **do** that?!” The psychotic girl snickered to herself as the final pieces of her plan fell into place in her mind’s eye. “Kuzuryu-chan would be so proud~~~ Upupupu~!”

Leaping up from her seat, plopping Monokuma to the ground carelessly, the girl raised her arms ecstatically at her brilliance. Even so, there was no time to bask… Morning would come sooner rather than later, and there was so, so much to do…

Oogami derailed things, but Junko Enoshima could get them back on track again. And there’d be no one to stand in her way, this time… It’d be as easy as one, two, three… 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Junko-chan's done with the slow burn~ We're moving into inferno territory now. XD
> 
> As you can expect next week, incidents don't make complete sense until you gather more information... So if next week confuzzles you, well. I've done my job. :3
> 
> Next time:
> 
> Makoto: I don't feel so good... >w<
> 
> Sayaka: You go straight to bed, mister. >:[
> 
> Celes: I feel I must agree, Naegi-kun. Rest is mandatory when you are not well... Never fear, I shall watch over you.
> 
> Sayaka: Like hell you will! He's MY responsibility!
> 
> Mukuro: @____@* *clinging onto Makoto, unable to voice the sheer amount of worry she has for his well-being*
> 
> Mondo: ... I don't gotta be a betting man to know this is gonna turn out ugly.
> 
> Byakuya: *snickers* Well, you commoners always complain I don't spend time with you... Who wants to hold a friendly little wager about which she-devil will emerge victorious...?
> 
> Chihiro: *pales*
> 
> Mondo: NO BET! NUH-UH! NO WAY!


	24. Chapter 5, Part 3: Smile at Despair in the Name of Hope

_“Naegi.”_

_Makoto paused in stowing away his books at the familiar voice and looked up with a small smile._

_“Hey, Kirigiri!” He greeted casually. “What’s up?”_

_Standing there in her Hope’s Peak uniform, the detective arched an eyebrow at the luckster’s laidback attitude. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, by any means; it just occurred to her that the boy was friendly with everybody whether they wanted something from him or not. That’s not to say Naegi was called on frequently – it was as he said, he didn’t specialize in any field or hobby. Kirigiri supposed that consequently, the luckster could afford to take it easy even when he was asked to help with something. It allowed him to do anything he wanted with his life._

_… That freedom must be nice. She herself had cases day in and day out, sometimes even spanning several days… And in rare cases, weeks. Kirigiri didn’t regret her career path, but that didn’t mean the freedom Naegi possessed wasn’t enticing in its own way. It afforded him a more open view of everything because he had the time to stand back and look at the bigger picture. It’s why he got along so well with everyone. Some might call that openness naivety, even Kirigiri had thought that was the case for a while, but now…_

_Now..._

_“… I just needed to express my thanks.” The detective ran a hand through her hair with a nervous energy about her. Sensing the luckster’s confusion, Kyoko elaborated. “… For… that thing we talked about last week.”_

_Makoto’s eyes brightened in recognition of the topic. He grinned excitedly._

_“Oh! So you and your d…” His grin stretched nervously at her narrowed gaze, and he laughed sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. “Y-You and that guy are on speaking terms again?”_

_Kyoko crossed her arms and looked to the side stubbornly, a tight, stern expression on her face._

_“I wouldn’t… go that far. Not everyone can let go of the past, or have the same family life…” The detective took a deep breath. “But… I won’t hesitate to do business with him. If a case comes up that’s too tough for the Dropout to handle, I’ll… take it. Likewise, he’s willing to share his connections with me when I need them… That’s it. That’s all we’re doing.”_

_Makoto chuckled sheepishly at her tenacity._

_“Well, let’s just see where it goes! I think you’ll be surprised how baby steps can lead to something big and amazing. I know he’s not your most favorite person ever, but family will always have your back! He said it himself, right?”_

_“… I told you, don’t get carried away. That man is **not** my…” Kyoko intoned flatly, but paused before she slipped up, and ran a hand through her hair with a slight color to her cheeks. “And besides… I’d be an idiot to turn down resources from Hope’s Peak Academy’s Headmaster… It will never… become more than this.”_

_The air became melancholic, and Makoto was more than ready to give the detective another pep talk, but…_

_“Heeey~! Whatcha talkin’ about over here?!” Leon grinned mischievously as he saddled on over. He looked between the two before settling on Kyoko and wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. “You gonna get extracurricular with Naegi over here~? I didn’t think herbivores were your type, Kirigiri! Then again, I haven’t exactly gotten a good read on you yet, so…”_

_Makoto frowned as the baseball star trailed off speculatively._

_“Lay off, Kuwata! Kirigiri’s got a life of her own. Not everyone’s obsessed about dating.”_

_Kyoko heaved a sigh as she immediately recognized the mischievous glint in Leon’s eyes._

_“Oho~… You’re not denyin’ it, though? She hitting on you, Casanova?” The redhead grinned ear-to-ear._

_Makoto blushed brightly and waved his hands in denial._

_“N-N-No, no…! Kirigiri’s just…!” His brain struggled to come up with a good excuse._

_“… Naegi helped me with a difficult case, and I was just offering up my thanks.” Kirigiri smoothly cut in, having mercy on the flustered luckster and telling a vague truth. Leon arched an eyebrow at her curiously._

_“Kirigiri!” Makoto mustered a smile in gratitude, and relaxed marginally._

_“Damn, you’re gettin’ soft, Kiri! I was just kiddin’ with Naegi, but you came to his rescue pretty quick! You got a soft spot for the class rep, don’t ya?”_

_Kyoko turned on her heel and began to walk away with a blank expression._

_“Well, he **is** a friend… Not to mention a valuable assistant…” She grinned a little smugly as she kept walking. She closed her eyes calmly. “Besides… Naegi has a girlfriend. I wouldn’t want to impose.”_

_Ever so casually, the detective slid the classroom door open and marched out like she hadn’t said anything shocking at all. Makoto had gone deathly pale, though, and his eyes morbidly panned around the room to see that just not Leon, but Mondo, Chihiro, Touko, Yasuhiro, Hifumi, Celes, Aoi, Sakura – hell, even **Byakuya** had paused in his last-minute note-taking to glance at the luckster in intrigue. Like he was a juicy slab of meat… which hypothetically, he was, since he didn’t go advertising his personal life like the rest of them did; he was definitely the hottest piece of gossip whenever something **interesting** came up in his life… _

_This, though? This was **not** okay! Sayaka wasn’t even here today, so what was he supposed to say?! He couldn’t tell a convincing lie to save his life!_

_“Kirigiriiiii…!” Makoto moaned, burying his head in his desk as his classmates flocked him with their ‘questions’. He couldn’t just say ‘no’ to having a girlfriend – the convincing lie thing, remember? But if he said ‘yes’, that opened up… so many cans of worms… He’d have to put on a show, ask a girl to fake date him, convince Sayaka to not murder her in her sleep…_

_So, so many ways it could go wrong… And that’s why he bolted like the hounds of Hell were right on his heels… which they were…_

_Meanwhile, Kyoko watched her classmates run off with a knowing smirk on her face. It might’ve seemed petty – maybe it was a little, payback for Naegi’s continued ‘hopefulness’ about her family life… -- but he’d thank her for this. Someday._

_She wasn’t the only one that needed “relationship help”, after all…_

~*~

“Ding-Dong, Bing-Bong! Good morning, you guys~! It is now 7:00 a.m.! Riiise and shiiiiine~! Let’s make today the best day it can be!” As per usual, the screens throughout the school flickered off as soon as the announcement was conveyed.

Makoto sluggishly got to his feet.

_‘My arms and legs feel heavy… Was it because I was up so late last night…?’_ He shook his head to try and clear it. … He didn’t feel any better after doing so… _‘Well, whatever… I have to get to the cafeteria…’_

In short order, he did. However, apparently Togami had words to say when he arrived.

“You’re late, Naegi. It’s one minute past the designated meeting time.” The heir reproached him crossly. The luckster rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

“I-I’m sorry… I’m not feeling too great right now…”

Sayaka and Mukuro’s heads snapped toward him as he mentioned that. Makoto could only chuckle nervously as he recognized those expressions – he got the same way when Komaru was under the weather, after all. He knew exactly what he was going to be in for today…

If Naegi had paid more attention, he would’ve noticed Celes’s gaze burning into him, as well. She was more subtle than those two, but her feelings were no less potent.

“You shouldn’t overexert yourself, Naegi-kun.” Mukuro, surprisingly, was the first one to speak up. She stared at him imploringly. “Eat if you can, but also drink plenty of fluids!”

Sayaka actually stood up and approached him, using the back of her hand to feel his forehead. She frowned unhappily.

“You really shouldn’t be out of bed…” The idol muttered, guiding him to the table anyway. “Well, c’mon. Let’s get some breakfast in you, and then it’s straight to bed again.”

An awkward silence fell over half the table. The other half was too busy leering at each other and shooting Makoto worried looks to care. The luckster chuckled nervously. Yup, this was about what he expected…

“Naegi-kun will need someone watching over him.” Celes spoke up with a calm, composed authority. “He won’t sit still, otherwise. Never fear, however – I shall carry this burden alone. It would not do for my Knight to collapse due to poor health.”

A tense silence fell over the group… for all of five seconds…

“ **You**?” Sayaka hissed, glowering at the gambler. “ **You’re** used to being waited on hand and foot! You don’t know the first thing about treating a sick person!”

Celes narrowed her eyes.

“You hardly know a thing about me. I probably know more practical medical knowledge than a pampered idol princess…” The gambler snapped back.

Sayaka rolled her eyes at the jab.

“Says the ‘lavish’ girl with ‘European’ parents! At least **I** worked myself to the bone to reach the top! I’m pretty sure I know more than you!”

Makoto’s smile became a touch strained as he felt the idol’s arms tighten around his possessively. Oh, no. **This was much worse** …

A dark aura blazed around Celes as she radiated a pleasant smile, cupping her hands under her chin. Nobody dissed the persona she had painstakingly built up. Nobody.

“Ufufu… My, my… I do beg your pardon… I suppose we could debate our ‘qualifications’ all day, but when it comes down to it, I have worthier motivation than you. After all, I still must atone for my sins, and there is no better way to start than taking care of the one who gave me a second chance… I will readily confess I am **not** perfect, as I once claimed. Therefore, I have more reason to be doing the ‘dirty work’ – a squeaky clean friend need not trouble herself.” Though unspoken, it was clear there was a challenge being issued. Celes was **daring** Sayaka to claim she wasn’t perfect, to break the rules of her own beloved industry…

It was really too bad for the gambler that Sayaka Maizono was used to fighting for what she wanted. She wasn’t pulling any punches today.

“Whoever said I was **perfect**?” The idol shot back, smirking at the gambler’s shocked gaze. “I know my priorities, and Makoto is at the top. If I’m being honest, there’s some things I need to atone for, too… You’re hardly the only one. And besides, at least I know my way around the nurse’s office.”

A creaking noise could be heard now, from Celes’s seat.

“A trifling point. As if I wouldn’t be able to find where everything is… More importantly, you would only make his condition worse with your **touchy** , **clingy** way of **caring** …”

Sapphire eyes glimmered with ecstasy.

“So… You admit he likes me more~…” The idol teased smugly.

“ **Fuck you**! He’d like me just as well if you’d stop **hogging** him all the time!” Oops, Celes’s furious side was rearing its ugly head… Not that it cowed Sayaka in the slightest.

“’Hogging’ him, hmm…? “ Sayaka tapped her chin and grinned coyly, even as she had one arm still looped around her luckster’s arm. “Well, I suppose we just… click well together~… So much so that Makoto’s let me sleep in his room a few times~! Bet you haven’t set foot in there even once.”

As the temperature in the room plummeted, and Celes let loose another rage-fueled string of curses and retaliation, Mondo shivered at how fast this was escalating and gladly stuck to his corner.

“Hot damn! I’ve seen chicks go at it, but not like this! How’s Naegi doin’ it?!”

Chihiro was just staring at the scene with wide eyes, spooked. Byakuya snickered from the head of the table.

“By being a doormat…” The heir smirked, crossing his arms. “Well, you commoners always complain I don’t ‘spend time’ with you… Care to place bets?”

Mondo’s eyes snapped to the heir in horror.

“Like hell! They’ll beat our asses black and blue for shit like that!”

Togami shrugged uncaringly.

“Your loss. This is the most entertaining thing that’s happened since coming here… I’ll have to give my gratitude to Naegi… if he survives…”

Mondo and Chihiro just **stared** at Byakuya. Their attention was drawn when the only other person in the room made herself known again – and they only realized that because of the luckster.

“You okay, Ikusaba?” Makoto asked nervously, as the soldier had gotten in close without the idol or gambler realizing. Needless to say, their sharp, cutting glares were on Ikusaba now.

Not that it stopped Mukuro from petting his head tenderly and leaning in close… too close…

“I swear I’ll protect you, Naegi-kun…” The soldier whispered softly. And she **would**. Even if she didn’t have experience in a lot of things, she had plenty when it came to taking care of Junko when she was sick. She would’ve had experience with Naegi-kun as well, if it weren’t for Maizono taking up the duty each and every time…

The soldier nodded in firm, unwavering determination. She wouldn’t lose this time! Maizono didn’t have the advantage of being Naegi-kun’s girlfriend anymore, so she’d just have to deal. She waited two whole years for this moment!

“ **Ikusaba** …” Sayaka and Celes growled lowly, glaring daggers.

Makoto scratched his cheek nervously, clearing his throat.

“U-Um… Togami!” The luckster blurted out, swiveling his head to the heir desperately. “K-Kirigiri’s not here… H-Have you considered returning her room key to her…?”

Togami eyed the luckster shrewdly.

“I’m not so sure I can yet, Naegi…” He raised a finger to his temple. “Her room was rather Spartan when I inspected it. It makes me… suspicious.”

“You looked inside her room?!” Sayaka whirled on the heir in shock and anger. Celes raised an eyebrow in intrigue, and Makoto and Chihiro looked to Byakuya in disappointment and dejection.

“The hell is **wrong** with you?!” Mondo snarled, raising a twitching hand.

Togami snorted derisively.

“You all want me to **trust** Kirigiri for helping us all this time… Yet for me to do that, I must see concrete evidence of who she is – and before you call that unreasonable, I would harbor much less suspicion if she had **any** possessions at all. Even a handful of them would have sufficed; yet all she has is a few spare sets of clothes. Everything else you would find in all of our rooms. **She has nothing that would set her apart**.”

Makoto screwed his eyes shut and shook his head in anguish.

“My room hardly has anything, either! If you were trying to see what talent she possibly could have, the dorm rooms aren’t the best place to search for that…! You wouldn’t have any idea what my specific talent would be just by looking at my room!”

Sayaka nodded in agreement.

“Yeah! My room doesn’t have decorations, either!”

Togami shook his head and pointed at the luckster arrogantly.

“You’re an open book, Naegi; I would have deduced right away you’re a commoner that the academy graciously allowed to be here.” He turned to the idol next. “And you… You at least are famous enough that investigating your room would be irrelevant. **We don’t know a thing about Kirigiri** , even after I perused her room. Whether you like it or not, that leaves two broad possibilities – either the Mastermind has withheld her possessions… or she has stored them in a more secure area that we have not yet accessed. Ergo, either she is the Mastermind or affiliated with them, or she’s innocent. As long as the possibility remains, I cannot lower my guard!”

Makoto groaned at the persistent skepticism. He could kind of see where the heir was coming from, but…

“But you said it yourself! She has nothing to hide in there, so what’s the point of barring her from it?!” The luckster fired back.

Togami narrowed his eyes dubiously.

“There’s nothing in there **now** , but that can change. She **did** give up her key willingly, right? For all we know, this is all a part of her bluff.” He inclined his chin. “I will return her key before she dies from falling asleep outside her room. However, I will also keep the pressure on by withholding it, because this may be the only way to pierce that ironclad shell of hers that keeps the rest of us out. It takes a great amount of pressure to make a diamond… does it not…?”

Makoto looked down dejectedly.

“… I’ll talk to her. I… I’ll prove we don’t need heavy-handed topics like that, Togami!” The luckster clenched his free fist with determination. “She’s our friend! We can’t let Oogami’s death be for nothing!”

Togami scowled at the seeming impasse. No doubt, Naegi would help her out of kindness, if it came down to it… Any of them would. Still… this was likely for the best. If he was wrong **again** , by some miracle, then their subterfuge would save them much grief. Nevertheless, he did not regret hardening his heart; if all of them were soft-hearted… that would create… problems… for when/if Monokuma decided to plant another mole in their midst.

Internally, the heir heaved a sigh. It seemed he was not through playing the ‘villain’ yet – though rather than do it for enjoyment, as he had in the past trials, he was now doing it for their ungrateful benefit. Great. He really was going soft… in a way…

“Huh?” Mondo’s gruff voice grabbed everyone’s attention. “When’d you get here?”

As the group turned to see where the biker was staring, they saw Monokuma nearby with a ticked off expression on his face. He raised a claw threateningly.

“I am unbelievably… unprecedentedly… **ANGRYYYYYYY**!” The bear raged more harshly than he ever had before. The unbridled anger had all of them wary of what he was going to say or do next.

“Angry…? At what?” Sayaka asked carefully.

“At the **thief**! I’m sorry to say, but one of you is **a thief**!” Monokuma spat his accusation.

“Wh-What?!” Fujisaki cried.

Monokuma just shook angrily.

“Who stole it?! Who stole my **treasure**!”

“Your treasure…?” Makoto echoed in bewilderment.

“Mr. Monokuma believed in you guys… And to have you guys… betray that trust…” The bear turned his back to them moodily. “These days, the world teems with anxiety and anguish – I can understand why people flee to their escapism…”

“What do you mean by ‘treasure’?” Sayaka continued to press.

“Shut up!” Monokuma snapped at all of them. “I hope you all get caught in a whirlpool of unemployment and debt!”

Abruptly taking his leave as he always did, an uneasy silence fell over the group.

“What was that all about…?” Mondo eventually voiced. Celes shrugged nonchalantly.

“Apparently, someone stole his ‘treasure’. We have no way to know what that is.”

Sayaka’s brow furrowed.

“Does anyone have any ideas…?”

Byakuya had a finger raised to his temple in thought.

“It was probably Kyoko Kirigiri’s doing.”

“H-Huh…?” Makoto stuttered in confusion.

“Who, other than her, could do something like steal from Monokuma?” The heir crossed his arms dubiously. “I suppose Ikusaba would be another possible suspect, but… with the way Monokuma threw her away like trash, even with sufficient motive, Ikusaba would find it even harder to steal something from him. Let’s not forget the new ‘rules’ that bear created to tighten her leash… Monokuma clearly has one eye on Ikusaba at all times.”

Togami’s words held weight… But while this seemed to convince everyone else, Makoto frowned thoughtfully as he reflected on Mukuro’s gift, which still rested safely in his pocket.

_‘No, Ikusaba was definitely the thief… Somehow, she pulled it off, and Monokuma seems to be only finding out about it now. But how did she do it…?’_ It was weird for there to be a delay between Mukuro’s theft and Monokuma’s discovery of it. She really must have pulled it off at such a time that Monokuma didn’t suspect anything to be amiss… And now that he was caught with his pants down, that bear wasn’t going to make it easy finding out exactly what the key was for.

… But maybe he could consult a certain somebody about it… He’d approach Mukuro, but he had a gut feeling that she wouldn’t be at liberty to tell him without Monokuma overhearing them. Makoto wouldn’t do that to her – not after she stuck her neck out like that.

~*~

“So, what’s the matter, Naegi?”

Thankfully, finding Kyoko hadn’t been all that difficult. She’d been loitering the halls, on her way to reinvestigate the fifth floor. Makoto was glad he caught up to her before she had… he didn’t want to think how winded and tired he’d be after following her up there; it was rather ideal that they could talk in the dressing room. He still wasn’t feeling that great… even felt like he was getting worse, steadily…

“M-Me? Ah, well…” The luckster chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “I… wanted to get your opinion on something…”

Kirigiri blinked slowly as she echoed his words.

“My opinion…?”

“Her opinion?” Sayaka also repeated, tilting her head.

It’d been simple enough to convince the others that he needed to speak with Kirigiri. Most of them assumed he was going to try and learn more about the mysterious girl; the luckster suspected Mukuro knew the truth, since she didn’t demand on coming with him like Sayaka did. The idol was still worried greatly for him, and he wouldn’t have turned her away, at any rate – he could trust both Sayaka and Kyoko with this secret.

The girls’ eyes homed in on the key as he produced it.

“Ikusaba gave this to me, early yesterday morning…” Makoto explained helpfully. “I think she got this while the Mastermind’s guard was down. She was definitely in a hurry to give it to me. But even so, I can’t begin to imagine what it could open…”

“Do you think this is what Monokuma was talking about when he mentioned his treasure being stolen?” Sayaka frowned thoughtfully. Kyoko plucked the key from Makoto’s hand, examining it.

“If Monokuma considers this important…” Kyoko mused, cupping her chin. “I have a few ideas what this key could be for. However, we will need to test it in order to find out what it opens. After all, there are currently four major areas locked to us – the second floor dorms, the Data Processing Room, the Headmaster’s Office, and the biology lab. This could be for any of those…”

Makoto frowned thoughtfully as he thought on it.

“Well… there’s also the hatch that’s in the trash disposal room… I know it probably doesn’t hold anything ground-breaking, but that’s been kept from us, too…”

Kyoko nodded shrewdly. It was an area she overlooked, that was for certain. Though it was likely easy to deduce what was down there, the possibility of a clue could not be denied.

Sayaka’s brow furrowed distressfully.

“Still… how are we going to try it out? Monokuma is probably going to be watching all of us like a hawk!”

Kirigiri crossed her arms and smirked.

“If you guys can distract Monokuma, I’ll go figure it out…”

Makoto’s eyes widened in shock and concern.

“You’re gonna sneak off somewhere else?! That’s way too risky! What if there’s more than one Mastermind lurking around? Distracting Monokuma won’t guarantee you’ll be able to safely check out an area…!”

Kyoko raised an eyebrow challengingly.

“Ikusaba didn’t get caught when she stole that key, did she…?” She nodded at the luckster and idol’s dumbfounded expressions. “I have a theory… that the Mastermind can’t observe us and control Monokuma **at the same time**. It would explain how Ikusaba possibly snuck away with that key, despite all the security cameras around. Still, I’m not saying you’re wrong. It **is** possible it was just a coincidence… But that’s why there’s merit in trying this out as a test. If it works, my deduction will be all but proven. What’s more, that would give us an opening.”

Makoto scowled as he looked down in worry.

“But still… it’s way too dangerous. Think about what’ll happen if it **doesn’t** work…”

Kyoko shook her head.

“That won’t be an issue… Remember: Monokuma has given us free reign to explore the academy for the sake of solving mysteries. It’s in his rules – he confirmed it for us when he made those new rules yesterday. And stealing the key, it doesn’t violate any rules, does it?”

Sayaka dipped her head, too.

“Still… will the rules matter much if we piss off the Mastermind? He could kill all of us, no questions asked!”

Kyoko stroked her chin thoughtfully.

“You bring up a good point – if the plan fails, we’ll be able to figure that out, too. If things go sour, will the Mastermind break his own rules? Or will he uphold them to the bitter end? We gain something of value whether the plan fails or succeeds. There’s no reason not to go through with it.”

“B-But…!” Makoto stuttered out.

“If we want to accomplish anything, risk is unavoidable…” Kyoko crossed her arms again. “I am well aware of the danger, but if we want answers, we must push forward… Am I wrong? I will not change my mind – I have no intention of it…”

Makoto realized in that moment… there wasn’t a trace of fear, worry, or anxiety in Kyoko’s eyes. She had locked onto an enemy – a mystery – that needed to be taken down… and she was **smiling** …

… The luckster respected that grit and determination. But even so.

“Wait. I get what you’re saying, Kirigiri… and… and I can respect your decision to go through with this.” Makoto looked her dead in the eyes. “… But Ikusaba gave that key to me. She trusts… me. That isn’t to say I don’t trust you… But Ikusaba is fragile now – vulnerable. I can’t… I can’t betray her trust. Not when she gave us this opportunity. **I’ll** check out where the key goes.”

The mysterious girl closed her eyes calmly and smiled.

“Always shouldering more responsibility than you deserve… That’s reckless in its own way. Yet, that’s what makes you the heart of our class… Out of everyone, you try the hardest to understand everyone. Something we all sorely need to learn.” Kirigiri handed the key back to the luckster. “I don’t have a right to stop you, not when you were right about Ikusaba… and Oogami… Understand, though, that it won’t be easy explaining your whereabouts to the others. They’ll demand to know.”

Makoto chuckled sheepishly, scratching his cheek.

“Actually… I was still gonna leave it up to you, if you wanted to investigate these places we haven’t seen yet. Like I said, I trust you.” He smiled at her genuine confusion. “I said I’ll check where the key goes… not the areas themselves. If the key unlocks stuff, I’ll leave them unlocked. We can always distract Monokuma later if you need another opening… well, assuming this works.”

Sayaka beamed at Makoto’s thoughtfulness. Kyoko’s surprise morphed into calm amusement and gratefulness.

“You really are kind… Maybe it’s better this way. For now, investigate the first floor – I’ll keep Monokuma occupied. We can check the fourth and fifth floors out later.”

Nodding, Makoto and Sayaka decided to get moving. True to her word, Kyoko waited a couple of minutes and then set to work on the distraction. Hopefully, with a bit of Makoto’s luck, this would work out…

~*~

Mukuro watched as Makoto and Sayaka left the dressing room early; Kyoko came out a few minutes later and summoned Monokuma to gather his attention. The soldier gave a small, bitter smile at the sight of it.

_‘They’re really making the most of it…’_ She thought to herself with some relief.

Mukuro knew Junko would discover her sin soon enough. And it wouldn’t take much to link it back to her. She’d even bent one of the rules by lock-picking the Headmaster’s Office to get it, so Junko was especially going to be pissed about that…

… But Naegi-kun and the others would glean the most information from the academy because of it. And if it helped him, that’s all that mattered…

_‘Shame about his tagalong being that blue bimbo, though~… It’d be a shame if she tripped and fell, leaving Naegi-kun by his lonesome~!’_ That voice was back again. She flinched and turned her head away sharply.

She wasn’t going to do that to Sayaka. No matter how tempting it was to personally help Naegi-kun with this… Mukuro just couldn’t. Junko would see. And she’d catch on right away.

The voice in her head tsk’ed in disapproval.

_‘Enough with the bravado! You know it’s over~! Even if they don’t hate you… they’re attached at the hip again. All that hard work, and you got **nothin’**!’ _The voice crowed triumphantly. _‘He’s not gonna look at you twice, wrapped around the siren’s finger as he is. If you just slit his little throat, Junko will welcome you back with open arms~… C’mon, kiddo! What would the pride of Fenrir do?’_

Mukuro’s brow furrowed as that thought came up again… That absurd, impossible thought…

_‘I’m not killing Naegi-kun.’_ She deadpanned. She wasn’t. She’d all but sworn fealty to him.

_‘Talking to oneself is the first sign of insanity, my dear~…’_ The voice practically preened in approval. _‘But honestly, Muku, if you’d really stop to think about it, all roads lead back to Junko… Even this dreary, miserable attempt at redemption~! **Really**. You haven’t even figured out what you’re gonna do when your “friends” kick Junko’s ass and drag her along to the Future Foundation! You know the Future Foundation means death for Junko, and you can’t **bear** it~…’_

Mukuro squeezed her eyes shut in frustration.

_‘I-I’ll figure something out…!’_

_‘… Except you won’t, ‘cause there’s no “easy” way out for the Destroyer of Worlds… She’d sooner take her own life… And wouldn’t that be a shame~? Junko Enoshima, denying the human race their satisfaction by taking away their chance at revenge~! I **know** it’s the last thing **you** want…’_

Mukuro tensed at that cryptic line.

_‘What I want…?’_

The voice continued along innocently, brushing Mukuro’s curiosity aside.

_‘Everything will be fine once you accept that all roads lead back to Junko~… How we get there is inconsequential. All that matters is the destination… And what comes after~…’_

… Mukuro was becoming more and more unsettled by her own fractured mind. In the past, she paid very little heed to her own desires and ambitions… Now she wished that she hadn’t been so… selfless… Because now she was suffering for it. Being consumed by those desires. Drowning in them.

And she didn’t even know what it was that she wanted… not in regards to Junko.

~*~

A short while later, the luckster and idol pair returned to the brunet’s room. Makoto was leaning on Sayaka for support. Despite trying to tough it out, he really was getting worse.

“I told you, I’m… fine…” Makoto chuckled weakly as Sayaka closed the door behind them.

The idol wasn’t convinced in the least.

“Nope! You’re on strict bed rest today. We’ll leave the rest to Kirigiri.” That key had been amazing. It worked like a skeleton key, unlocking the shutters that barred them from the second floor dorms, as well as the dorm rooms (of course they unlocked Kyoko’s room), **and** the hatch in the trash disposal room… And the best part was Monokuma hadn’t accosted them even once, so they still had it.

Ikusaba had truly come through for them…

“You’re really going to sit here the whole time?” Makoto asked incredulously as Sayaka tucked him in and sat on the edge of the bed briefly.

“Well, I might step out to get a thermometer and some other things from the nurse’s office…” Sayaka confessed, before she smoothed his hair a little to feel his forehead again, making his cheeks light up a rosy red at her touch. “But only after you’re conked out… ‘cause I won’t stand for you sneaking out on me when you’re sick.”

At her stern tone, the Luckster huffed rather adorably, and it took the idol all her might not to squeal at the sight of his puffy face. … Makoto really was too good for her.

“Oh yeah… here.” Makoto slipped the skeleton key into her hand while her palm was face-down, away from the camera. “Keep… that safe…”

Sayaka frowned worriedly, but nodded at his request. She definitely would.

They spent a long while like that, intimately. Makoto eventually drifted off to sleep, and Sayaka stepped out to fetch the medical supplies she mentioned, making sure to lock the door on her way out. No one would harm a hair on that precious boy’s head if she had anything to say about it…

Mukuro was right outside, standing guard vigilantly. Sayaka smiled gratefully at her assistance, and then took off. Even if they were rivals… she wouldn’t turn down the help. Not now.

~*~

Needless to say, Makoto got worse. It got to the point that all he could do was rest in bed, and Sayaka stayed worriedly at his bedside. Nighttime eventually came again, and the idol rested on the floor close to him, out of fear for how much worse Makoto’s condition could actually get…

She sincerely hoped he wouldn’t get worse. This was supposed to be a simple fever, but it was escalating much too quickly… and Sayaka just didn’t know what to do.

Sayaka herself felt… unwell. She couldn’t be sure if it was the same thing affecting Makoto, but she wouldn’t be surprised if it was. She’d spent the whole day with him, after all. For a while, she just tried to stay awake as long as possible, to keep an eye on him. But she herself needed sleep, especially with potentially catching what her luckster had…

Time passed in a haze. With no clocks or watches, Sayaka had no concept of it, and worse still she kept occasionally catching snatches of a voice she recognized but at the same time ‘didn’t.’ It was… her own voice. It felt like a memory, but she told herself that it had to be a hallucination, because she didn’t remember saying anything like that at all…

**_“I know… know… I know…”_** Sayaka’s voice continued to echo in her head, much to her confusion. **_“I know… everything… My goal… is not to leave this place… but to_ remain _here… My friends… my father… I have to believe they’ll make it… For their sake – no, for the sake of the world… I cannot lose hope. Makoto… he’s going to change the world… He’s not sure of himself, and that’s why… I want… I need to support him… For myself… for the world… I must stay here…”_**

Sayaka flushed as she heard herself say all those words. They sounded so familiar, and yet not. There was definitely a resoluteness to them. Though the message was grave… she somehow made it seem like not all hope was lost. But how could that be? Her friends… her father… They meant **everything** to her… Makoto was important, too, but if she knew her friends were in danger, why did she choose to stay here?

The idol was so confused… All of this couldn’t be anything more than a hallucination, and yet it felt so real, so final. It felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders, the more she dwelled on it. It was confusing, and still worried her greatly that she might have willingly cut herself off from the world… But her own words floated back to her. She felt… prepared to face whatever came after all of this. And the reason she would be prepared… was because of the young man resting uneasily beside her… **He** was still alive and well. Their class was still alive and well… Half of them, anyway. It might be difficult to rebuild, grieve over all that was lost, but she could certainly do it so long as Makoto was at her side… No amount of tragedy would break her so long as she had him.

Sayaka blushed faintly at that thought. Makoto… simply had that natural charisma. Charisma that easily rivaled that of an idol… And he had to endure none of the hardship to attain it. He never had to use people as stepping stones to greatness. All he did was try to help out everyone… and that was enough to attract her, to inspire her to keep striving for her dream. Because reaching the top spot in the idol industry? That was only the start! She had so much more to do in so little time, because idols were short-lived in their popularity, and she wanted to desperately reach out to all the lonely kids out there who needed a friend like she did. She needed to reach far and wide, spread happiness and warmth to every heart that she could.

Makoto had taught her that. Makoto had **reminded** her of that, it’s why she became an idol in the first place! She’d lost her way because the industry was so cutthroat, but he helped her find it again. Even though he didn’t believe it, Makoto was amazing – perhaps moreso than any of the Ultimates in their class.

It was so weird reflecting on this… Similar to the ‘memory’ of her voice, it felt like she’d already thought about all of this before. But… before Sayaka could dwell on it further, she blacked out again.

~*~

When her eyes reopened, Sayaka panicked, but found herself unable to move. She felt too sickly, too feverish. Some… person… in a white suit was standing over Makoto’s bed, and they were wearing a mask. A grinning mask that had Sayaka feeling so unsettled. Whoever this was – the Mastermind, one of her classmates, or some other malicious party, she didn’t care. What mattered was that the bastard was reaching for Makoto, and she needed to **move** …!

Alas, her body refused to cooperate. All she could do was watch helplessly as the person scooped Makoto up in their arms, and…

…

…

… She blacked out again.

~*~

When Sayaka opened her eyes this time… she was horrified to discover that Makoto was **gone**. As in, nowhere in the room. That was when she recalled the person in the mask, and she struggled to move her body; with some difficulty, she managed to sit up to get a better look around the room.

Nope. She was not mistaken. Makoto wasn’t somehow behind her, and he wasn’t in the bathroom, which was left open. The door to their dorm room was also… open…! **Where was he**?!

It was only in her panic that she finally registered Kyoko standing there, right outside the doorway. She was just… **standing** there and Makoto was **gone** , **kidnapped** …!

… Sayaka really didn’t like considering the worst possibility, and in fact denied it with her whole mind and body.

“Kirigiri…!” Sayaka blurted out blearily as she struggled to stand up, somehow barely managing it.

However… Sayaka soon collapsed to the floor. The idol knew that Kyoko was talking because her lips were moving, but she couldn’t make out any of the words. What really mattered… and rubbed Sayaka the wrong way… was that Kyoko was too damn **calm**. Makoto was in danger, taken who-knows-where… and Kyoko was standing there **talking** …!

Infuriatingly, Sayaka blacked out once more. She was getting real sick of this…

~*~

When Sayaka woke up next, it was to the sight of Mondo, Chihiro, and Byakuya hovering over her. **Why** were they just standing there?!

As she pushed herself off the floor, Sayaka tried to fully recall why she felt such a sense of urgency… and then she remembered. Again.

“Makoto! Where is he?!” The idol heatedly demanded as the boys continued to make sure she was alright. She could see Celes hovering outside of the doorway, but no Kirigiri… And no Ikusaba.

“Geez, calm **down** …!” Mondo grumbled as he tried to explain the situation. “Somethin’ big happened with Monokuma! We tried letting you know last night, but you weren’t answerin’! Me ‘n Fujisaki came to check on you guys when you still didn’t show up at the breakfast meeting, and we found your room open! I went to fetch Togami and Ludenberg after that. The hell happened?!”

Sayaka felt her mouth run dry as she took that all in. Morning…? It was **morning**?

“Makoto… Some bastard in a mask took him…” Sayaka let out desperately, feeling all eyes on her. She hugged her arms as her eyes were trained on the ground. “We… We have to find him…! **I can’t lose him**!”

Fujisaki wrung his hands anxiously.

“A person in a mask…? Wh-Who could that be…?”

Togami scowled, crossing his arms.

“Given all our alibis last night, there’s only a select few that it **could** be… I suppose given Maizono’s state, she’s unlikely to be the culprit. That leaves two prime suspects.”

“Two…?” Celes asked archly, raising an eyebrow. “I assume you refer to Kirigiri or Ikusaba… But I think it’s foolish to settle on just them. There is still the Mastermind, as well…”

Togami scoffed.

“That’s assuming they’re even in the academy… If Ikusaba and Oogami were moles, it’s possible they’re not even here. They wouldn’t need to be.”

“Merely stating it’s a possibility…” Celes rolled her eyes.

Sayaka exploded furiously at all of them.

“ **Who cares about the damn Mastermind right now**?! We need to find Makoto **NOW**!” Her tone brokered no room for argument.

This startled her classmates with how panicked she was, but they couldn’t blame her… They’d been rather neglectful of the luckster by sitting there and arguing. Mondo curled his hand into a fist in determination.

“You’re right… Sorry, Maizono… Let’s go save the kid!”

~*~

Unfortunately, they’d all forgotten that hope had no place in that academy… After over five minutes of combing the school, they did indeed find the person they were looking for. The five of them each took a floor in their frantic, desperate searching, and in the end… it was Sayaka’s wail from the fifth floor that alerted them to her discovery.

Sayaka’s screaming did not end, it was prolonged by many shrieks and continued denials, even as the last of them reached the fifth floor. Because of it, though, they were drawn to the garden where they saw… what was clearly Makoto Naegi, collapsed on the floor of the garden. A kitchen knife stabbed into his chest – the handle made it clear. The pants, the hoodie, that brown hair and ahoge… there was no doubt.

“N… Naegi-kun…?” Celes whispered quietly. Her whole body felt numb.

Sayaka had all but backed out of the room, hugging herself in dread, fear, and anguish. One look at her revealed she hadn’t even attempted to approach the body. She was… too distraught to do so. That knife was plunged straight where his heart would be… but more than that, it was **a kitchen knife** … Whoever the murderer was **knew** … They **knew** about that time she had nearly…!

Togami’s glasses were askew in shock as he stood there, flabbergasted. Fujisaki sobbed in anguish. Oowada… Oowada clenched his fists and began stomping over to the body furiously.

“No… **No fucking way in hell** … **Not Naegi** …” The biker growled lowly. But just as he was within a few feet of the body, an explosion was set off… Apparently, a bomb had been planted on the upper half of Naegi’s body. Mondo was sent flying from the sheer force of it.

Celes cupped a hand over her mouth in muted horror, and Sayaka’s pupils had shrunk down to pinpricks. Because now there was a raging fire consuming the upper half of Makoto’s body, and gradually growing. Tthere was absolutely no way anyone would survive that…

Togami yelled for Fujisaki to fetch a bucket and put out the fire, which the programmer hastily complied to do… And when the fire was out, all that was left of the upper half of the luckster’s body was charred black remains. His skull could be clearly be seen.

There was no running from the truth anymore. Makoto Naegi… was dead.

... And yet no Monokuma announcement was ringing out... Something was wrong.

“G-Guys…!” Fujisaki cried out, something else was clearly unsettling him since his eyes weren’t focused on Makoto’s body, as much as he was crushed by the luckster’s death.

“What now?!” Mondo grunted painfully as he got back to his feet and ran back over to the programmer, looking down at Makoto’s body guiltily. He clenched a fist and screwed his eyes shut mournfully.

Chihiro was only able to point a shaky finger towards the shed, where a trail of blood could be seen coming from the doorway, which was open ajar. Togami briskly walked over, a determined scowl on his face. He shoved the door open… and found yet another body collapsed on the floor – this one was face-down, dressed in a white suit, gloves, and a mask covering their head. A knife was jammed into their back, a pool of blood staining the suit’s backside – a different kind of knife from the one that had been stabbed into Naegi.

Still no body discovery announcement...

“ **What the hell**?!” Mondo raged from behind the heir, spying the body for himself. Chihiro was seeing it as well – the girls were too absorbed in their own mortified thoughts, and hadn’t yet heard the discovery of a second body.

“Is that the…?” Fujisaki trailed off in disbelief. If this was the Mastermind, then they were finally free!

But at what cost…?

Firmly, Togami knelt down and turned the body over. The mask was rather disturbing with that Cheshire grin, but the heir didn’t care about that. He needed to know who the mystery attacker/kidnapper was… When he peeled off the mask, lilac hair fell freely to the sides. Togami’s eyes widened as he caught the first glimpse of familiar pale skin, and that unmistakable face… Mondo and Chihiro’s breaths hitched in shock at the sight as well.

Not just Makoto… Kyoko Kirigiri had also been killed. The mask slipped from his fingers as Byakuya felt for a pulse to be certain, but there was no mistake…

Two more classmates dead. And more mysteries than they knew what to do with…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For once, I'm stuck without a punchline~.... >:3 
> 
> You can't look away, even though you know something is terribly wrong~ *slings an arm around Mukuro* And I'll bet you're just dying to know what state she's in... You already know Sayaka is an inconsolable wreck~ Celes isn't going to be much better, just angrier and empty~ The things that I put these characters through... And that I put you all through, consequently~ Don't worry, though. I'm immune to all this because I'm already crazy... n______n
> 
> I kept Sayaka alive like you guys wanted! Aren't you grateful and rejoicing? n____n
> 
> Next time:
> 
> Whatchu been up to, Mukuro-chan? 
> 
> ... Sayaka's not lookin' too good.
> 
> .... Togami's looking a little frazzled, too. 
> 
> .... I think the reveal of their Killing School Life being broadcasted to rave reviews is somehow making them worse...
> 
> Are characters supposed to spark and fizzle like this? They kinda seem all run-down... How do I pep them up...? :3


	25. Chapter 5, Part 4: Smile at Despair in the Name of Hope

Darkness. Pitch black and suffocating. Sense of direction was hazy. Time was nonexistent.

She took deep, gasping breaths, squeezed her eyes shut tight… and charged again. The door still did not yield. Yet it did quake with the sheer amount of force she had applied. Shakily, the girl stumbled back, quivering in both fear and anger.

_‘So, uh… I know this was sorta my idea… Well, maybe half of it.’_ The voice paused, humming thoughtfully. _‘… Okay, barely any of this is my fault. I mean! I **just** said it was a bad idea to leave Junko-chan unattended when she was clearly out of her cage! **You** were the idiot that abandoned her post to go ‘investigate’!’_

Her breaths became ragged as she rushed the door again. And again. And again. She gritted her teeth furiously.

_‘Th-This is all **your** fault…!’ _The dark-haired girl raged internally. Always prodding her, alluding to… ideas… that she had no interest in…!

_‘Oh, really…? No interest whatsoever, huh…?’_ The voice spoke smugly, with what sounded like **experience**. The girl shivered in dread and charged the door even harder. Still it did not yield. _‘Tell me something, m’dear… If you’re so splendid, pure, and noble… If we set aside all the lives you’ve taken, the people you’ve wrought to utter ruin, the devastation outside that you helped to create… Even if we ignore all of that sludgy, ghastly hatred and jealousy you hold for a certain siren. If you could just… answer one teeny, tiny little question…?’_

The girl huffed and puffed as she took a moment to gather her strength for the next charge. Clenching her eyes shut again, she charged senselessly, putting as much strength as she could behind her attack… It trembled with all of her weight put into it. But still, the door did not yield.

She could practically ‘feel’ the coy smirk the voice had as it posed the question.

_‘Just what do you plan to do with Junko-chan…?’_

The girl’s eyes turned into pinpricks. Her skin felt clammy, and she shivered again as a chill ran up her spine. Desperately, she threw her full weight into another ram at the door.

Anything to keep moving. To not **think**.

_‘Uh-oh~… Seems like someone is figuring it out~…’_ The voice chuckled with dark mirth. _‘You know full well what you **want**. You know what it is you must do to get **what you want**. Peace is built on sacrifice~ Wars are not won on platitudes~’_

Slam. Slam. **Slam**.

_‘… But the war’s already over, isn’t it? You **lost** ~ Peace is a thing of the past, but that’s okay! You barely got to taste it, so why mourn over it?! Vengeance is the medicine, and I’m the doc that administers it~! Gimme just five minutes, and all the pain will be **gone**!’_

Mukuro trembled and collapsed to her knees against the door. Her eyes drooped from how weary her bones felt. It couldn’t have been even an hour yet, but she felt like it had been days…

… Why did it feel like it was getting darker? The air colder and harder to breathe? Mukuro knew these feelings were in her head… because that sludgy, putrid darkness was violently churning in her gut again… Her heart clenched agonizingly as she kept thinking about Naegi-kun… The clear danger he was in…

Unsteadily, Mukuro rose again. And charged.

~*~

After several minutes, Byakuya emerged from the shed and strode back over to the others. He did not look happy.

“I take it Kirigiri didn’t have anything…” Celes dryly remarked as more of a statement than a question. She had a knuckle over her mouth anxiously.

Togami crossed his arms and looked to the side in frustration.

“As the Mastermind, you’d think she’d have **something** on her… A key would have been nice.” The heir heaved a sigh. “Still. We’re under no pressure to investigate – we have no more obligations to follow the rules, for that matter. By and large, I will consider this a positive result.”

Celes’s eyes darkened at Togami’s flippant attitude. She spared a look over at Sayaka, who had yet to say a word in quite some time and was stuck staring off into space while hugging herself.

“A positive result, you say… I would debate this as more of a pyrrhic victory… if this can even be called a ‘victory’…” The gambler herself was still quite sore over the luckster’s death. The only reason she hadn’t broken down and grieved was because somebody needed to stay collected and keep Togami in check. Oowada would sooner punch Togami’s lights out for his insensitivity – not that Celes would object to such an outcome – and Fujisaki lacked the courage to stand up to the heir. Maizono was simply out of the question with the state she was in.

… Sometimes she wished that firetruck hadn’t missed.

“This **is** a victory.” Togami insisted, taking a rigid stance, glaring back at the gambler. “Naegi died because of his naivety, as I said he would. Yet, in death, Naegi has accomplished more than all of you have in your entire meager existences. Our freedom is secured, and I shall ensure that any allies Kirigiri had outside these walls are crushed under my heel in retribution for all that she has done. My return to the world will be like a phoenix from the ashes – I don’t consider this pyrrhic, not when the sacrifice was meaningful.”

Celes heaved a sigh. Togami was as cold as ever… And Naegi-kun wondered why she found it hard to regret her actions. Would it truly have been such a shame, had Yamada succeeded in slaying Togami? She asked you…

“M-M-Maizono…? Are you okay?”

Celes’s eyes panned over to Fujisaki, who was now approaching the reticent idol. One look at the bluenette would have told you that was going to be a bad idea, but the programmer did it anyway. Celes braced herself for the inevitable meltdown.

Fujisaki’s brows knit together in concern when he didn’t get a response. Nervously, he reached out to touch Sayaka consolingly.

“M-Maizono…?”

Sayaka did not disappoint. She whirled on the programmer with a wild, empty look in her eyes and screeched.

“ **Leave me alone** …!!” And without any further provocation, Sayaka bolted out of the garden. Fujisaki wilted and cried. Nearby, Mondo shivered.

“Sh-Shit… That even made **me** jump…!” He shook his head and massaged Fujisaki’s shoulder consolingly.

Celes just deadpanned at the turn of events. Really, the only thing that surprised her was that Sayaka’s reaction hadn’t happened sooner. This was like the first motive all over again, except this time the loved one in question was, without a doubt, gone. The physical evidence was right in front of them.

Togami raised a finger to his temple in thought.

“We’re not going to get anywhere with that girl hysterically running off on her own like that… As much as I’d like to just proceed without her, I’d like to hear a more detailed testimony about last night.” The heir pointed at Oowada demandingly. “You, go calm her down! Bring her back here after.”

Mondo glared back at the heir furiously.

“Who the hell put you in charge?! We’ve been doin’ everything you’ve said since last night… and now Naegi’s **dead**!” The biker growled threateningly. “You’ve done enough!”

Togami clenched a fist in aggravation and gritted his teeth.

“Plankton…!”

“Enough…” Celes almost groaned, rolling her eyes. “ **I’ll** go check on her…”

As the gambler made to move, Mondo stopped her in her tracks.

“Like **hell** I’m leaving you alone with Maizono!” The biker spat. “I’ll do it, but it ain’t ‘cause that asshole ordered me to! C’mon, Fujisaki…”

The programmer blinked away tears at the mention of his name, but nodded quickly in agreement. He wanted to check on Maizono, too. The two of them left the garden, leaving Togami and Celes by themselves.

“As sensitive to others’ feelings as ever, I see…” Celes dryly quipped, staring deadpan at the heir. She wasn’t surprised Oowada still distrusted her at this point. Togami clicked his tongue and turned away stubbornly.

“This is a waste of time… I’m going to inspect the Headmaster’s Office and Data Processing Room, see if they’re unlocked. If not, we’ll make Oowada crack them open with the pickaxe.” Togami snapped, stalking off impatiently.

Celes sighed, as she knew that meant she would have to wait for the others to return…

“What would you have done, Naegi-kun…?” The gambler muttered to herself, feeling more like Taeko Yasuhiro in this moment than Celestia Ludenberg.

Well, it was fairly obvious what he would’ve done. He chased after Maizono to calm her down the first time, after all. And after that… he would’ve come back and stopped them all from arguing. Somehow. That was just… who Makoto Naegi was.

Her eyes guiltily trailed to the remains of her friend, and she chewed on her lower lip. In moments, she crumpled to her knees and released the anguished tears she’d been holding back. She was alone, she could afford to drop her mask. The others didn’t even care she was holding it together because someone had to, because it’s what Naegi-kun would have wanted; they probably assumed she was desensitized, cold, and unfeeling as always.

Yes, Taeko was alone… She would always be alone now. Her Knight was gone.

~*~

Why had her instincts taken her here? This was… honestly not very far from the garden. It was a poor hiding place, just like last time…

And yet… maybe that was why her mind dragged her here. For familiarity. Because… she was running from something horrible, isolating herself from everyone. This was… This was her hope. Because that body… that wasn’t Makoto. You don’t just wake up one day, and Makoto Naegi is **dead**. Makoto doesn’t make enemies like that. Even Monokuma kept his grubby paws off of that innocent, charming boy… Makoto doesn’t just die. **That’s not how this works**.

… So she was waiting. Because she had run off, distraught. Makoto would come find her, comfort her… And they’d leave together. Because only Makoto had been kind enough to come find and check up on her. The boy who nursed a crane back to full health when no one else would… that’s who Makoto Naegi was. And Sayaka was grateful for it. It gave her a beacon of hope in the darkest of times, like right now… Gave her hope in humanity.

Sayaka squirmed nervously, fiddling with her ribbon anxiously. That wild, empty look in her eyes was still present.

… What was keeping him? Sh-Should she be going to look for him, instead…? Maybe he was hurting just as much as she was, and every moment she waited, he ended up suffering alone…

Oh.

That was right… That was the case last time, too, wasn’t it? His family was… And all she could think about was her own circumstances… And how she needed to get out… She’d been so **selfish** , and he’d still…

Sayaka tensed in both dread and determination. She… She needed to go find him **now** … She wasn’t going to repeat the same mistake!

The door to the classroom opened. Her reaction was instantaneous.

“Makoto…!” The idol cried, whirling around. Her eyes dimmed as she registered it was Oowada and Fujisaki. “O-Oh…”

She resumed hugging herself and staring into empty space. Sh-She could wait as long as she needed to… Makoto was fine, probably just searching elsewhere…

“M-Maizono…?” Fujisaki tried approaching the idol again.

Sayaka quivered as that voice spoke up again… Why wouldn’t they just leave her alone?

Mondo rubbed the back of his head awkwardly as he looked down.

“Kid, let’s not spook her again, alright…?” He turned his attention to the idol and scowled with determination. “Losin’ someone you love is not easy. It sucks. You feel like your whole world is gonna collapse. We… We all know that by now. Ain’t that right, Maizono?”

Sayaka wrinkled her nose in confusion, but her expression otherwise remained blank and vacant. Not easy…? Losing someone…? Oowada wasn’t making sense. She… hadn’t lost anyone…

Mondo grunted and took a seat. He knew that expression. Knew it all too well. Daiya… Taka… Mondo tended to jump to the stage of anger in the grieving process, but that didn’t mean he never denied his bros died. This was gonna suck.

“We’ll be here for as long as you need, Maizono. We’re not goin’ anywhere.”

Fujisaki wrung his hands nervously and quickly took a seat, too. He looked up at the idol anxiously. Oowada seemed to know what to do; he’d wait as long as he needed to, in order to help his friends. Fujisaki wasn’t going to abandon Maizono at a time like this.

But Sayaka was still very lost.

“Why won’t you just leave me alone…?” The idol whispered, shivering. “Makoto will… He’ll be here.”

He was here last time. Makoto… Makoto never failed to be there for his friends. For her.

“He’s not comin’, Maizono…” Mondo rebutted in a forceful, but not as gruff, tone. He wasn’t going to let her wallow in this denial. She was only gonna be more hurt if it dragged out.

Partially against her own will, Sayaka’s eyes narrowed and she felt a heat slowly simmer within her body.

“Wh-Why…? Is Makoto angry at me…?” She whispered more to herself than to the biker. Mondo shook his head fiercely.

“You know Naegi wasn’t that kind of guy, Maizono! He was like Bro. A real stand-up guy, who was always there for you… But he’s gone now. They both are. And we can’t do shit about it!”

Sayaka’s shoulders trembled with rage. But she wasn’t exploding yet.

“Makoto’s not gone…!” The idol hissed lowly. “Y-You can’t just… doubt him like that…!”

“ **He’s dead**!” Mondo was the first to shout. He raised a twitching hand as he gritted his teeth. “What’s denying his death gonna do?! You’re only hurting yourself!”

This time Sayaka did erupt. Her rage was white hot and made her feel so rotten and miserable inside.

“ **What did Makoto do to deserve a death like that**?!” Sayaka roared, glaring right back at the biker. “Stabbed through the heart, getting blown up…! It’s a damn **joke** …! S-So that wasn’t Makoto! D-Don’t you **dare** say that was Makoto…!”

Mondo balled his hand into a fist and squeezed his eyes shut in frustration. He really hoped he wouldn’t have to show her this… It was the one thing on Makoto’s body to really identify it. But if this is what it took, then…

The biker turned the e-handbook on as he pulled it out. The display read “Makoto Naegi”. He scowled as Sayaka recoiled at the hard evidence.

“He’s gone, Maizono… We can’t bring him back.” Mondo grunted and tried to reel in his rage. He was devastated about this, too, but he wouldn’t allow any of them to run from it… Especially not the girl that seemed to love Makoto the most.

“Wh-Why…?” Sayaka collapsed into a chair unsteadily. She looked down at the floor, broken. “Why did it come to this…?”

_“What you said… I can believe you, right…?”_

_“Wh… Of course…! Absolutely! We’re in this together, Maizono! Because… you’re my Assistant…!”_

Makoto didn’t deserve this. He’d been nothing but kind and supportive. He carried them all through this Hellish game. And now, just when it seemed like they were finally coming together, when they were right at the Mastermind’s doorstep… He was murdered.

Escaping held less meaning to it. The whole world just… lost its color. She could find her friends out there, her father… But a part of her would remain dead, right here in this school.

“W-We can still save Naegi’s family…!” Fujisaki tried to cheer his friends up. “We still don’t know what happened to everyone!”

A very faint feeling stirred throughout her body, but Sayaka still couldn’t muster a smile or anything beyond her broken expression. Her eyes locked with Mondo’s, though hers were still unfocused.

“The kid’s right.” Mondo scowled with determination. “They deserve to know Naegi saved us… And… we should protect ‘em, y’know? Not **just** them, either… Everyone who died. We gotta look after our own.”

Sayaka resumed hugging herself and staring down at the floor emptily. Of course she could do that much… She had every intention of following through on that. Her problem with this plan… was the pain that would inevitably accompany associating with the Naegi’s. They would be a reminder of who she lost. She would be forced to face his sister, his parents, look them straight in the eye, and tell them how she failed to protect him…

Worse still. The concepts of “Naegi” and “family” would torment her to the grave… Because of what she could have had. How she could have told him, but didn’t because she was such a coward…

Sayaka was never going to recover from this. Not to how she was before. Her heart had been wrenched out and ripped into a million tiny little pieces…

Mondo had been about to try another tactic to raise Sayaka’s spirits up when Celes poked her head in.

“Togami wishes for us to join him downstairs… The Data Processing Room has been opened.”

Fujisaki blinked in astonishment, but Oowada scowled at the development. Who cared about the damn academy’s mysteries after losing Naegi…? If it helped them crack that huge entrance door open, fine, but he wasn’t in the mood for any more damn mysteries.

“Wh-What about Ikusaba…?” Fujisaki piped up, raising a trembling hand nervously. “N-Nobody’s seen her, right…?”

A beat.

“No, I cannot say I have…” Celes murmured, holding a knuckle over her mouth and looking troubled.

“Don’t tell me Kirigiri got her, too…” Mondo grumbled bitterly.

Sayaka just stared off into space, lost in her own misery.

~*~

The four of them joined Byakuya in front of the Data Processing Room’s door. Just like he’d said, the door was open a crack, but Togami didn’t appear to have touched it since discovering it.

“You gotta be shitting me…” Mondo growled under his breath. “You didn’t even touch the damn thing?”

Togami looked at the biker like he was insane.

“After that bomb went off…? Not a chance.”

Mondo growled threateningly at the heir, but reluctantly chose to open the door for the cowardly bastard. He wrenched the door open… and they peered into the seemingly endless cavern of darkness within. Not a single light was on.

“The shit…?” Mondo dared to take a step into room. When nothing happened, he took another step in.

Still nothing. Just pitch black. An impenetrable darkness. The others reluctantly filed in after the biker, crowding into the room. Not long after the last of them had made it in, the lights flickered to life – whether that was because enough movement had been detected, or if someone had bumped a light switch, they couldn’t say.

What they did know… what they saw… was a wall of monitors at the other end of the room, each one showing a feed from a security camera in the academy. There was also a door with Monokuma painted on it sandwiched between some of the screens. As for the rest of the room, there were desks and chairs sparsely throughout the room, and some more monitors off to the side. There was also a TV sitting by the main desk in the room – it was off.

It was a bizarre room, to put it mildly. Unlike the other rooms they’d been in, this room wasn’t made to **appear** terrifying… The terror simply lurked here. Unabashed, and not for show, but in its true form.

Togami raised a finger to his temple in thought.

“Looks like our hunch about this room was right… This room is used **to watch over us** …”

“To watch us?!” Mondo exclaimed.

“Then this is…” Celes narrowed her eyes.

Togami nodded sharply.

“No doubt about it. It’s the **Puppetmaster’s room**.” The heir looked off to the side sternly. “And now it seems our question has been answered… about Kirigiri’s identity. If she wasn’t the Mastermind, this game would be carrying on like normal, since five people found her body, in addition to Naegi’s… But no announcement rang out. Because no one is left to oversee the game.”

Mondo raised a twitching hand agitatedly.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah… a real shitty Sherlock, you are. Let’s just find a way outta this hellhole!”

Togami pointed at the biker with authority.

“No. First, we investigate this room. With the Mastermind dead, we have all the time in the world to escape when we want. We have to uncover the purposes of this Killing Game.”

Celes twirled a lock of hair around her finger, appearing nonchalant.

“Not to mention, it would be **nice** if we could identify who killed Naegi-kun and Kirigiri… I somehow doubt it was as simple as them killing each other.” The luckster didn’t have the heart of a killer, not even if it was in self-defense. And if Ikusaba had done it for him… where was she?

Sayaka seemed to gain a little more light in her eyes as the gambler brought this up. The one who had murdered Makoto…? Could this room really help them uncover that?

“Th-There’s some computers over there…” Fujisaki murmured, poking his fingers together nervously. “I-I can try to see if I can access it! M-Maybe they hold some clues!”

As Fujisaki scurried over there without prompting, Mondo rubbed the back of his head and looked toward the TV.

“I… guess I can try getting that thing working…” He grunted, moving over to it.

Celes and Togami wandered over by the monitors and Monokuma door, while Sayaka stayed rooted in place near the center of the room. She looked around listlessly.

A rattling drew everyone’s attention – when they located the source, Celes tsk’ed and let go of the doorknob to the Monokuma door.

“Locked tight… And we have no key to try out.” The gambler mused with a frown.

Sayaka’s eyes widened a fraction at the mention of a key. She did have one… but she had reservations about revealing that to the others. Makoto had entrusted her with that key, and he’d received it from Mukuro. She felt like she’d be betraying their trust by revealing it now…

Maybe she could sneak back in here later, when the others weren’t around…

“You gotta be shitting me…!” The next thing that drew everyone’s attention was Mondo. He was over by the TV, and by the look of it, he managed to plug in the digital TV antenna so they could turn it on. But when the screen flickered on…

They saw themselves, peering at the television. Even Fujisaki had paused in his efforts with the computers and wandered over.

“H-Huh…? This is… footage from the security camera in this room, isn’t it?” The programmer asked fretfully.

“What the hell…? This ain’t right!” Mondo growled.

“Oi vey… What are you doing?” Togami bared his teeth in annoyance.

Fujisaki’s brows knit together in confusion.

“That TV is connected to just the indoor TV antenna… It shouldn’t be displaying the security camera footage!”

“Something’s wrong…” Celes narrowed her eyes.

Sayaka, who hadn’t spoken up until now, frowned in worry.

“Wh-What about changing the channel…?”

“Worth a shot…” Mondo shrugged. He attempted it, and… nothing on the screen changed. Every channel seemed to be of them in the Data Processing Room. “What the hell?!”

“Could it be broken?” Celes wondered.

Fujisaki shook his head.

“No… From what I can tell, it seems to be working fine… M-Maybe the TV is some sort of trick…?”

“A trick…? What kind of trick?” Monokuma tilted his head curiously and peered at the TV, too.

“I-I don’t know…” Fujisaki murmured. “But…”

Celes froze upon realizing **who** had just entered the conversation…

“What?” Her gaze darkened as she glared at the bear.

“Hmm?” Monokuma innocently hummed.

“H-Huh?!” Sayaka paled, hand over her mouth.

“Huh?” Monokuma parroted her.

Mondo recoiled in shock.

“ **What the fuck**?!”

Monokuma clutched his belly as he cackled.

“Gahahaha! Long time no see, bitches~!”

“M-Monokuma…?!” Fujisaki quailed in terror.

“You were supposed to be dead…” Celes hissed.

“Gahahaha! Me? Dead? Don’t make me laugh, **you scumbags**!” Monokuma mocked them all.

“Your personality’s changed, too…” Mondo growled lowly.

Monokuma rubbed the back of his head bashfully.

“Of course! It’s been two beary long years! It’d be weirder if I **didn’t** change…”

Togami scowled fiercely.

“It hasn’t been that long, you moron… It’s been twelve hours at most.”

“M-More importantly, why are you back on?!” Fujisaki cried.

Monokuma giggled, paws over his mouth.

“That, yes, that. Upupu… I love it when you guys make that face… I wanted to see the look on your faces when **hope** turned into **despair**!”

“Are you saying… you pretended to be dead… for **that**?” Togami hissed darkly.

“It’s pretty unusual for a bear to play dead, isn’t it? Normally, it’d be you guys playing dead! Oh, this is amazing! I can’t stop laughing! Aaaaahahaha!” Monokuma clutched his belly again as he cackled. When he stopped, he raised a paw deviously, showing off his grinning side. “On that note… it’s time you guys started despairing for the future! Throw away your **hope** -ridden pasts… and revel in this **academic coliseum**!”

Fujisaki hugged himself as he cried.

“N-No way… it’s not over?!”

Mondo raised a twitching hand furiously.

“We were gonna get out of here…!”

Monokuma tilted his head.

“You want out? You’re **still** saying that? Get it through your thick skulls already! It’s not possible to leave the academy! Plus… it’s not like life here is **all bad**! I mean, no matter where you live, bad stuff will always happen.”

“Fuck you… There’s nothing worse than this…” Celes slipped a little in her persona, but by the way she was gnashing her teeth, she was really pissed. And no one could blame her.

“Which is to say, this is despair? Aaaaahahaha!” Monokuma mocked the gambler. “Whew, I’m tired of laughing… so let’s get down to business. That TV over there… you guys stumbled onto something pretty cool! Yes siree. Without that TV, the story of this academy would end up buried beneath the sands of time…”

“I knew it… there’s something more to that TV than meets the eye.” Togami snarled.

“Th-The TV’s only plugged into the antenna! Wh-Why is it showing security camera footage…?” Fujisaki asked tearfully.

Monokuma giggled again.

“Upupu… Wouldn’t you guys just looove to know… All right, as a super special service, I’ll tell you about that TV! That television is, just as it should be, displaying the signal received by the antenna! No tricks!”

Sayaka paled at the possible implications.

“I-If it’s just the signal received by the antenna, why are we…?”

“You’re so dimwitted! Figure it out already!” Monokuma huffed. “Basically, what I’m saying is… every second of this academic coliseum **is being broadcast live** , **nationwide** , **to raaave reviews**!”

Sayaka’s pupils dilated as she registered the bear’s words.

“H-Huh…?”

“Every second of this academic coliseum **is being broadcast live** , **nationwide** , **to raaave reviews**!” Monokuma eccentrically repeated himself, word for word.

But no matter how many times he said that… the words would just not form a coherent sentence for them. Not one that they could accept with ease.

“Wh-What do you mean… being broadcast live… nationwide? Is that supposed to be some kind of fucking **joke**?!” Mondo raged.

Togami’s glasses were askew as he paled horribly.

“D-Don’t tell me you… hijacked the broadcast signals?!”

“Th-The security camera footage… is being aired on TV?! Th-That’s not possible…!” Fujisaki cried.

Monokuma breathed a sigh of contentment.

“The fact that your minds are blown by **that** just goes to show how little you guys know about the real world. As long as you know a trick or two, hijacking some silly TV signals is easy mode!”

“You’re… not joking around…?” Celes pressed, knuckle over her mouth in concern.

“Of course not!” Monokuma scoffed. “There was meaning… in everything… At every turn, I grudgingly left you hints to help you tackle the academy’s mysteries… I even went as far to lure you guys into this very room. You think I’d do all that without a reason? It was all for the sake of the audience… following this unparalleled display of **live** , **public despair**! As the director of Despair Entertainment Productions, it was the least I could do! Our slogan is ‘Real Despair Entertainment’! And **this** is extreme reality programming if I ever saw it!”

“ **You’re a fucking liar**!” Mondo roared. “If this was shown on TV, the police and public would be up in arms!”

“H-Help would have come by now…!” Fujisaki agreed.

“Help already **has** come!” Monokuma teased. “But in the end, this isn’t their problem, is it? Even if someone watching shouted ‘They’re in danger!’ they wouldn’t actually do anything, would they? That’s just how people are. Not that I understand, or really even care.”

Togami chewed on his nails nervously.

“It would require astronomical funding and equipment to hijack and maintain control of public broadcast waves.”

Monokuma giggled.

“You wanna know why I went so far? Upupu… Well, you see… that’s still a secret! You guys have your work cut out for ya, don’tcha?!”

“Work… cut out for us…?” Sayaka echoed. It was clear she wasn’t all there; she was still reeling from the live broadcast reveal. This held serious ramifications not just for her career as an idol… but also… _‘Makoto’s death… was turned into a circus and aired on TV…’_

… Obviously, this did not make her happy **at all** …

Monokuma nodded sagely.

“Of course, I’m talking about **that** …” And just as he said that, the school’s alarm system rang out.

“Ding-Dong, Bing-Bong! We got a corpse here! We’ll be holding a **Class Trial** very soon, so make good use of the time you’ve got! Maggot, you might wanna try looking in the **garden**! Upupu! See you soooooon~!” The screen flickered off.

All eyes were back on Monokuma, who hadn’t left his spot in the Data Processing Room.

“Upu… Upupupupupupupupupupupupupupu…” Monokuma giggled to himself. “Some idiots are just so **slow**! I wonder if she was born that way, or if she was just dropped on her head as a baby like a bouncy ball… Don’t mind me, I’ll just leave Monokuma File 5 over here for ya. Best of luck~! Well, I’d better be off! It’s gonna get pretty hectic! I’m expecting a **ton** of fan reactions today from this! I’m so **exciiited**!”

After leaving the file, the bear departed, leaving all of them disheartened, shocked, and miserable… He left behind a nonsensical, incomprehensible truth… and **despair** … They all remained there for a while, unable to move… Even standing was a herculean task.

“I don’t get this **at all** …” Mondo growled furiously. “All this shit about public despair… **why is he even still alive**?!”

“Right when I thought we were going to be able to get out here…” Fujisaki cried.

“A Class Trial…?” Celes hissed darkly.

“As usual, we just have to determine who the culprit is…” Togami heaved a sigh. “The culprit who killed Kyoko Kirigiri and Makoto Naegi...”

Sayaka’s eyes widened.

“S-Somebody… killed both of them…?”

Togami shook his head.

“We won’t know until we investigate. Maybe Kirigiri killed Naegi, and somebody in turn killed her… We have no way to know until we check. The fact that Monokuma is up and running again… means the Mastermind is still alive. **This coliseum has always been between the fifteen of us**! I do not see that changing now. The only real suspects… are Ikusaba… and Maizono.”

Sayaka stiffened. She… was a suspect…? In spite of everything she’d been through with Makoto…? Her eyes darkened at the heir, but Celes beat her to the punch, heaving a sigh herself.

“Togami, we should leave this to the investigation… Pointing fingers now will do us no good.”

Togami crossed his arms stubbornly.

“Fine. Do what you want. I’m getting started. If you value your lives, move your bodies. Verify the truth with your own eyes. Those are… the rules here…”

At Togami’s words, they all made their way back to the garden… That was… the best place to start, after all… And maybe they would finally find Ikusaba there.

~*~

Mukuro charged through the open doors of the garden and grinded to a halt a few feet from the most jarring sight in the room. She sank to her knees within moments of discovering the explosion-damaged corpse. Her body felt completely numb.

_‘Tsk! You mean we raced all the way here, and Junko’s killed him already? Guess Junko-chan didn’t feel like dragging it out. No sense of occasion, what’d I say?!’_

“He’s gone… Naegi-kun…” Mukuro whispered hoarsely, recognizing the remains of the hoodie. She squeezed her eyes shut in anguish – would have fallen forward if she didn’t prop herself up with her arms. “Junko was punishing me…! Sh-She… She killed him… I… I-I should have protected him… Naegi-kun’s **dead** **because of me**!!”

There was no use denying it. Out of everyone that was left, Junko had the biggest axe to grind with Naegi-kun. **She** had the most motivation. Even if by some miracle Junko manipulated someone into it, the blood was on **her** hands. No one else’s.

This devastated her more than she thought possible. Naegi-kun – the one who accepted her, tolerated her existence, considered himself **her friend** … He was gone. She wouldn’t get to hear his soothing voice. Wouldn’t get to bask in his warm, welcoming presence. Wouldn’t be privileged to receive those **smiles** of his… the ones that made her feel warm from head to toe…

He was gone. And the one who murdered him… She, who rejected Mukuro and threw her away like trash on the side of the road… What else could this be but punishment? Punishment for abandoning Junko when she ran off to join Fenrir. Punishment for all of her screw-ups in the events leading up to the Tragedy. Punishment for getting close to their classmates. Punishment for failing to kill Oogami. Punishment for stealing the skeleton key. **Punishment for loving Naegi-kun** …

Junko had more than enough reason to punish her.

But still.

But still. But still. But still.

Wasn’t **murdering Naegi-kun** … Wasn’t that punishment just too much?

…

_‘Wondering how you can live with yourself, eh…? Oh, you can’t bring him back!’_ The voice in her head airily dismissed her latest delusion. She took on a more professional, yet passionate, tone. _‘How about you let me take charge, hmm? No more bad memories. No more pain. No more fear… Scout’s honor~!’_

In most cases, Mukuro would have rejected the voice outright. Up until this very moment, Mukuro had every intention of resisting the urge to just… let go. This whole incident had frayed on her every last nerve, but she had held out… because there was **the possibility** that Naegi-kun would be spared. Through some miracle, divine intervention, whatever…

As long as Naegi-kun breathed, Mukuro had it in her to keep up the fight. To struggle on, even when she had doubts about what to do with Junko after they escaped… But now Naegi-kun was gone. And the searing pain left behind was just…

“No more pain…?” Mukuro croaked out, her bloodshot eyes staring down at the floor listlessly as her arms quivered, struggling to keep her up.

_‘Just leave everything to me~…’_ The voice sounded very pleased. _‘Everything we ever wanted, I’ll see to it all! Take a load off, you know you’ve earned it. No more guilt. No more impossible decisions. No more puzzling out what you want… I’ll handle it all for ya!’_

… Mukuro knew that this was the same as placing her blind faith in Junko. She knew… this isn’t what Naegi-kun would want her to do… She knew that surrendering control… would lead to a lot more suffering for people who didn’t deserve it…

But Mukuro wanted the pain to stop. Wanted the memories to just disappear. Stop haunting her. Mukuro opened her mouth to give her answer…

“Ikusaba…?”

Mukuro tiredly craned her head and saw the others standing in the doorway. Celes had been the one to voice her shock. Mukuro couldn’t stand looking at them very long before returning her head to its original position and stiffly rising to her feet.

“Hey, guys…” Mukuro muttered quietly, keeping her gaze averted.

… Even though she hadn’t formally surrendered control, seeing everyone as they were now, some things sharply came into clarity for her… Despite harboring some suspicions about her, clearly seen in their eyes, they weren’t outright treating her with animosity like they had back then… No one moved to restrain her. No accusations were barked out.

_“I want to believe in the person I’ve been friends with up until now! I can’t just believe… that all of it was a lie! You’re not… You haven’t made us your enemies! You’re scared, and even though I don’t understand why, I… I want to listen and understand. Please! Don’t tune us out!”_

Mukuro shed a lone tear at the memory. It slowly rolled off her face and vanished into nothingness.

They weren’t accusing her, and Makoto vouched for them… That made them innocents… for now. Mukuro narrowed her eyes at the body before them as a dark suffocating feeling rolled in her gut. Made her hands ball into fists.

Mukuro hadn’t surrendered complete control… But things were coming into focus. Her desires, her newly designated mission, Mukuro could finally assign words and meanings to them.

At last.

~*~

The Monokuma file started out as it always did, giving the usual biological info on the victims.

_‘Makoto Naegi_

_Height: 5 ft. 4 in._

_Weight: 104 lbs._

_Chest: 31 in._

_Special Ability: Ultimate Lucky (Unlucky?) Student’_

_‘Kyoko Kirigiri_

_Height: 5 ft. 6 in._

_Weight: 106 lbs._

_Chest: 32 in._

_Special Ability: Ultimate ???’_

From there, the file went into detail on each of the victim’s bodies.

_‘Naegi’s body has one stab wound, clear though the heart and extending to the back of the body – present before explosion. The explosion occurred post-mortem. There are signs of suffocation. No other injuries or wounds were found on Naegi’s body._

_‘Kirigiri’s body has a stab wound that penetrated her back and extends to the front of her body. She also has a bullet that pierced her abdomen, and is still lodged there. There are signs of trauma visible on the back of Kirigiri’s head, which appear to have been caused by multiple strikes from a metal blunt object roughly 7.0 cm in length at its thickest part. Her hands bear nasty burn scars that are considerably old. Kirigiri died approximately at 3:30 a.m. Death was not instantaneous.’_

Though it was clear they had a lot to talk about in regards to alibis and overall details of the incident, it was agreed they would all examine the garden first. Testimonies would be helpful in clarifying certain details, but they would also color their perceptions. They needed to keep an eye out for anything and everything, first and foremost.

There was a shaky truce shared between all of them as they carried out the investigation in the garden together. There was clear dislike and suspicion with certain people, but they shared information with each other… for now…

“Only the upper half of Naegi’s body is wet…” Mondo muttered, rubbing the back of his head. “Makes sense, right?”

Celes held a knuckle over her mouth.

“I suppose… When Fujisaki put out the fire, he stopped it before the flames could touch the lower half… And when the explosion occurred, the knife that was lodged in Naegi-kun’s chest was sent flying… Plus, there were no bloodstains around the body, despite how the bloodstain around the wound had looked fresh…”

Mukuro narrowed her eyes coldly.

“The knife was left lodged in Naegi-kun…?” She hissed. “And what about the bomb? Where did that come from?”

Togami raised a finger to his temple in thought.

“I have an idea, but it’s something that we will visit later. For now, just comb the garden.”

This did not please Mukuro, but Celes and Mondo seemed to have an understanding of what Byakuya was thinking about. The heir simply stalked off towards the shed, where Sayaka and Chihiro were. Mukuro scowled, dissatisfied. Wouldn’t elaborate on the bomb, wouldn’t allow her to inspect Naegi-kun’s body to confirm if the Monokuma File was true… The soldier might not be a coroner, but she still had experience with dead bodies.

Apparently, she and Sayaka were the main suspects, besides Kyoko and Makoto themselves… Mukuro knew that neither of them would have killed Naegi-kun – she herself had been trapped, and Sayaka… no matter her mixed feelings on the idol, Mukuro knew she wouldn’t have murdered Naegi-kun. She knew this was Junko’s doing.

But with the rules in place to keep her mouth shut…

“Hey… the hell even is this, anyway?” Mondo held up a scrap of burnt… something that was close to Naegi-kun’s body.

Mukuro accepted it from the biker and examined it herself. The texture wasn’t hard… More like rubber or latex… Did Naegi-kun have something on him that got burnt up in the explosion? He wasn’t one to wear gloves outside of winter… or chem lab…

The soldier narrowed her eyes as she tried to think on it. If she was honest, nothing sprang to mind. She had an easier time identifying a different piece of rubble that was also close by… **That** had clearly been a part of a Monokuma bomb. So that had been the cause of the explosion. But due to there being no other parts of Monokuma lying around, that meant it was just the bomb that had been planted near Naegi-kun’s body.

Strange. That would imply Junko planted the bomb herself rather than remotely set off a Monokuma. Junko normally wouldn’t care about her killing machines enough to go through the hassle of dismantling and removing the bomb… Then again, with no access to the Monokuma Control Room at the time, Junko must have had very little options.

Celes hummed thoughtfully as something came to mind.

“I recall Fujisaki said that the sprinkler system goes off every morning… If this is true, and the system hasn’t been tampered with, that would mean Naegi-kun was brought here **after** the system went off at… 7:30 a.m., was it?”

Mondo rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

“Sounds about right… You talking about how the body was dry when we found it?” The biker received a nod for his inquiry. “Makes sense… Guess that means Naegi was killed after Kirigiri? Well… if he was killed here, I guess…”

At his speculation, Celes shrugged.

“We have a time of death for Kirigiri, not Naegi-kun… For all we know, the bodies were brought up here while we were busy discovering what had happened in Naegi-kun’s room – you and Fujisaki waited in the cafeteria for, what, half an hour after the morning announcement? The killer had a lot of time with all of us gathered on the first floor.”

Mukuro listened with half an ear as she went to examine the chicken coop. She wasn’t expecting to find much, but it was an aspect of the garden that most would overlook during an incident. She was glad for checking.

“There’s two chickens missing…” Mukuro reported to the biker and gambler, who paused in their conversation.

“Chickens?” Mondo repeated, his brow crinkling in confusion. “How the hell do they fit into this?”

“I can think of a few ideas…” Celes narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “But it looks like we’ll have to speculate about that on our own time.”

As Celes said that, Byakuya, Sayaka, and Chihiro returned from the shed.

“Kirigiri’s a dead end. Nothing that can’t be learned from the Monokuma File – although, I will admit, the knife that was stabbed into Kirigiri was Ikusaba’s survival knife.” The heir remarked, crossing his arms over his chest. “The only other thing of interest in that shed was a vinyl sheet that was wet and dirty on one side. We’re still missing two key items related to Kirigiri’s murder, at least that the Monokuma File mentioned… I take it Naegi didn’t have them on him?”

Mondo shook his head.

“Nah, I’ve been keeping an eye out for those… Naegi just had his e-handbook on him.”

Togami raised a finger to his temple in thought.

“Then we will move on to other areas. Oowada, you can stay and guard the bodies. We can’t spare the manpower for two guards, but considering you actually have an alibi for last night, that won’t be a problem…” The heir then pointed at Ikusaba commandingly. “But before we set out… Ikusaba, you are going to tell us exactly what you were doing last night! Oowada says you declined to join us when he found you in front of Naegi’s room, but by morning, you were gone. And you didn’t show up until after the body discovery announcement. Explain.”

Mondo growled at the heir barking out orders again, as well as the tone he took with the soldier. Mukuro scrunched her nose in distaste at Togami’s haughty tone… But this **was** Togami, so…

“Oowada did approach me, last night…” Mukuro muttered. “I can’t remember the time, though. Around the nighttime announcement, I guess?”

Mondo rubbed the back of his head.

“Yeah… Togami found out about Monokuma in the gym, wanted us all together.” The biker frowned, staring downward. “Me, Fujisaki, Ludenberg, and Togami were together all night. You said Naegi wasn’t feeling too well and that you were gonna protect him. Guess that explains Maizono not being there, either…”

Mukuro quirked an eyebrow at this information, but at Togami’s stern glare, didn’t comment. Why he bothered trying to control information about something so minor was beyond her… By now Mukuro could work out the details – Monokuma was inactive in the gym, so everyone went to investigate; they took him apart to gain an understanding of how he operated, and that’s how the bomb came to be separated from the bear. It was a risky gambit, considering he could have turned back on at any moment, but Mukuro wasn’t much better… She shrugged uncaringly.

“You guys said Monokuma was unresponsive… I didn’t want to leave my post, but my… curiosity got the better of me.” The soldier took pride in suppressing the twitch at the memory. “I went to investigate the Data Processing Room. When I got there… the room was open, so I just went in there without thinking… But it was a trap. That door can close and lock on its own… And it’s possible to even be locked in, since the lock’s electronic… So I was… trapped. And the lights all went off, leaving me in pitch black…”

Junko had failed to mention that door’s capabilities… much to Mukuro’s chagrin. But that was probably the entire point. To trap her in an enclosed space while Junko had free reign of the academy… It had been a disaster from start to finish…

And Naegi-kun had died because of her stupidity…

Togami scowled in disbelief, crossing his arms again.

“You’re telling me… That you were trapped in the Data Processing Room all night?”

Mukuro stared back at him, deadpan.

“Believe me or not… It’s the truth. I was trapped in that darkness until sometime this morning.” A shiver went up Mukuro’s spine as she recalled the Hell that had been. Junko obviously didn’t want her spying through the security cameras, let alone use Monokuma to fight her, so she temporarily cut off the feeds and locked the door to the control room. But turning off all the lights had been… overkill. She was trapped with no sense of time, forbidden from breaking the door down (though she **did** attempt to… for Naegi’s sake…), and stuck with nothing but her thoughts for company. Mukuro shook her head to clear away the memory of that Hell. “When I heard the door unlock, I… I didn’t question it. I ran back to Naegi’s room, and turned it upside down for any clues for where he might’ve been taken… But I didn’t find anything. And by the time I began searching the academy altogether, the announcement rang out…”

It had been like getting splashed awake by a bucket of ice water. She still couldn’t quite believe it. That Naegi-kun was… gone…

Mukuro squeezed her eyes shut tight and tried reeling in her emotions. Not now. She would not lash out at… innocents…

_‘ **Innocents**? In-a-no-sense?’ _The voice jeered in her mind. _‘Naegi was the only innocent here! You got the Salem Bitch over there that couldn’t even do murder right. Mister Anger Mismanagement. Salty Moneybags that’s gonna probably finger you as the culprit all ‘cause of Junko-chan… And theeen there’s that sultry siren that deserves to die the most… Oh. And I guess Fujisaki’s a spineless coward – not much else to say about him. Honestly, can you really say there’s anyone worthwhile left?’_

Mukuro gritted her teeth.

_‘Naegi-kun would want them to live, so they **live** …’ _Mukuro left no room for argument, but she could practically feel the voice shrug in her mind.

_‘Even if you spare them, Junko’s probably going to butcher them all anyway, and frankly, it’s gonna be a lot more painful for everyone involved… *sigh* It’s your choice, Muku~’_

… Mukuro was really getting sick of that voice. But considering how its influence had started to leak over, to open up her mind to these **ideas** … At this point, Mukuro had to keep her mind focused on the mission.

Because eyeing Togami’s scrawny neck was making her think just how brittle it would be to suddenly snap… She wasn’t even going to think about the **ideas** she had about Maizono… Junko did them all a favor by instating that ‘only two murders’ rule. It would just be so **easy** to turn fantasy into reality… and Mukuro was honestly a little scared of how excited she was starting to feel about that.

… The mission. The mission needed to come first. There was another reason she called these people innocents, aside from the fact Naegi-kun considered them his friends… If she just kept that in mind, channeled all of these… dark… oppressing… wonderful… tantalizing new thoughts and feelings into that mission… If she could just do that…

“You do realize that with no one to confirm any of this, your alibi is nonexistent?” Togami narrowed his eyes at the soldier, who flatly returned his stare.

This idiot… really had no idea he was playing with fire…

_‘Do it, do it, do it! Break his kneecaps~! There’s no rules against that~!’_ The voice giggled maniacally.

**No** idea…

“I’ve told you my story.” Mukuro replied coldly, glaring back at the heir. “Your turn. What were you all so busy doing last night?”

The soldier wasn’t even going to bother questioning Maizono. With Junko involved, the singer was going to be next to useless; her sister never left loose ends, and if she chose to kill Kirigiri and Naegi, then Maizono was a dead end in information.

_‘But can we **really** be sure of that…? There’s a helpful little video that makes people malleable, y’know~…’ _The voice in her head jeered mockingly. Mukuro ignored it in favor of Togami who was taking a defiant stance.

“That’s not how this works…!” Togami seethed, clenching his jaw. Celes, however, cut him off.

“Togami, Oowada, Fujisaki, and myself were in the gym all night, dismantling Monokuma.” The gambler droned, rolling her eyes at the heir’s caustic glare. “Oh, like she hadn’t deduced it already from all the information that we gave her. It’s pointless to sit on it, might as well get it all out in the open now. Togami wanted all of us to maintain perfect alibis while these strange happenings were going on, so we stayed together… even went to the bathroom in pairs. That’s why Oowada and Fujisaki went to get you, Maizono, and Naegi-kun as a pair. He was pretty annoyed you guys refused to cooperate.”

As Celes deadpanned this last part, Mukuro cocked an eyebrow inquisitively at the heir, who crossed his arms and scowled. As if she would have wasted time with the bear while Naegi-kun was vulnerable…

_‘So instead you exceeded Togami’s idiocy! Well done~!’_ The voice cooed. Mukuro twitched.

“… I planned to interrogate Monokuma on that ‘treasure’ he was raving about being stolen…” The heir admitted begrudgingly. “I found him in the gym. When he didn’t respond, I went around looking for the others because I was going to seize this golden opportunity by having us all together. Not out of some corny sense of camaraderie, mind you… it just made sense to secure airtight alibis when something was clearly afoot. A pity you and Maizono didn’t join us – would have made the case open and shut with Kirigiri and Naegi the only ones without alibis.”

… Now he clearly had gone too far. Not even Celes was going to cover for his ass this time.

“You’re saying… I should have just left Makoto **alone** …?” Sayaka darkly hissed, glaring intensely at the blond. Mukuro’s hand twitched, all but ready to strike the heir down. “That I should have **abandoned** him?! Just to make his death **easier to solve**?!”

Togami arched an eyebrow curiously.

“Why not? Your presence clearly didn’t save him. And if Ikusaba is to be believed – which I don’t, mind you – she didn’t care enough about him to keep her post. She ran off on her own…” Several things happened at once. Sayaka and Mondo moved in to slap and punch the heir respectively, but they were both brushed aside by a blur that they barely registered. Mukuro hoisted the blond up by the collar and glared at him murderously. This caught them all off-guard, because none of them had actually seen Mukuro in action before as the Ultimate Soldier… To see her skills on display, and so casually at that, more than a few of them took a few big wary steps back. Togami choked at the sheer amount of pressure the soldier was applying to his neck through just clutching his collar alone. “Wh… What do you think you’re doing?!”

Mukuro tightened her grip gradually.

“I… didn’t **care** about Naegi-kun…?” The soldier hissed venomously. “ **You never cared for him at all**! You never cared for anything outside your damn checkbook…! He was always a ‘distraction’, just another forgettable face in the crowd! He was a **slave** to you!”

Mondo’s hand twitched nervously as he gritted his teeth.

“Sh-Sh-Shit…! This chick’s gone awol!”

Fujisaki cried silently, trembling like a leaf as the biker had him stay back. Celes stood rooted in silent shock at the rage the soldier was emanating; it was unlike anything she’d experienced before. Sayaka just continued glaring darkly at the Togami heir… he deserved every moment of this…

“Clearly you obsessed over him…” Togami choked out, still maintaining a withering, defiant glare, even now. “But even so… do you really think this wins me over? **Threats on my life are meaningless**. I’ve gone to war and emerged victorious! I’ve been held hostage… countless times…! Monokuma’s rules state there can only be two murders! And if you can’t kill me… then bodily threats are the worst you can do, and they are even **more** useless…! All you do is point the smoking gun at yourself when voting time comes!”

Mukuro’s grip tightened to the point that breathing was impossible for the Togami heir. She didn’t even flinch as his face slowly became blue from the lack of oxygen.

“Likewise, death means nothing to one that lost **everything** …!” The soldier darkly replied. “If I’m going to die anyway, I might as well drag you to hell with me…! If you’re just going to throw slander at me and Maizono… Maizono, who **took care of Naegi-kun** … **You don’t deserve to live**!!!”

_‘Whoa, hey now… Let’s not get too carried away with the good vibes just yet!’_ The voice, for once, spoke up nervously. **Nervously**. Like Mukuro gave a damn at this point… To hell with the mission if she had to put up with this shit…! _‘ **Hey**! I said **calm down**! I **promise** we’ll get him later!’_

Even as the voice took an authoritative tone with her, Mukuro did not back down. She wasn’t going to hold off on Togami’s punishment when he’d stepped way out of line… He’d already been pushing his luck for two damn years. Shamefully, it took the death of her Light to make her lose all patience with him… With all of them, if she was honest…

“Ikusaba… just stop…”

And just like flipping a switch in her brain, Mukuro slowly blinked as she craned her head to see Maizono, looking away, her bangs obscuring her eyes. She’d always had mixed feelings about the idol, but Naegi-kun had cared about her so much… And it was for that reason alone Mukuro hesitated, slackening her grip the tiniest amount.

“Maizono…?” Mukuro whispered softly.

“He’s not worth it.” Sayaka reiterated herself, keeping her gaze averted. “Just… let him go.”

…

Togami wheezed and gasped for breath as Ikusaba dropped him unceremoniously to the ground. Her arms limply fell to her sides, and her eyes remained fixated on the idol. A tense silence befell the group, one that even Togami didn’t dare to break.

Their truce had been tenuous to begin with. But now more cracks had formed. What more **could** be said? Without inciting another heated argument?

They all left the garden mechanically, not saying a word to one another. Mondo, of course, remained behind. Not because of Togami’s order – but because someone needed to guard the crime scene, and he was the only one left that ‘could’, with Oogami gone…

~*~

They didn’t have very many places to investigate – not with any certainty, anyway. They had no idea of where Kirigiri had been all this time. And due to Maizono’s account, they didn’t know where Naegi would have been taken, if anywhere, after he was poached from his room. Chihiro and Celes remained up on the fourth floor, to check the areas up there – mainly the Headmaster’s Office, to confirm if Togami wasn’t lying about it still being locked, and the Data Processing Room, where Ikusaba had been locked away in, supposedly.

Byakuya, Sayaka, and Mukuro all returned to the first floor, and to the dorm side of the academy. The heir went on ahead to the dorms, while Sayaka paused and went to search the kitchen first. Needless to say, there wasn’t much to confirm in there, except for the fact that just one knife was missing along the wall…

Sayaka hugged herself and stared down at the floor listlessly, once she’d confirmed this with her own eyes. What else had she expected? The killer clearly knew her sin. Chose Makoto as their target to rub salt in the wound...

But who did it? Could she really believe Togami, Ludenberg, Fujisaki, and Oowada had perfect alibis? They were confident, but if Sayaka had learned anything in these trials, if there was even the tiniest hole in an alibi, that could make all the difference. 

Still, if they were talking about considering all possibilities, then Ikusaba...

“Maizono…?”

The idol nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden, fragile voice that had spoken up next to her. Her eyes panned to the right, and sure enough, Mukuro was shadowing her. She blinked slowly as she drank in the soldier’s appearance… Mukuro looked as torn up as she did. The bounce between that intense rage and broken countenance was like whiplash for Sayaka.

“Ikusaba…” The idol murmured just as softly.

The two of them seemed unsure what to say for a long time… but Mukuro eventually found some words.

“What’s… happening…?” Mukuro stared down at her palms, lost. Everything was just… wrong. In the blink of an eye, Naegi-kun was gone. And any sense of control that Mukuro possessed had gone with him.

She… She honestly didn’t know what was going on with herself. Mukuro didn’t even know why she was asking the idol about it… Maybe because out of everyone, Sayaka had been the one to actually bring her back down to earth?

Maybe because she was afraid of being left alone with that voice again…?

Sayaka hugged herself tighter and resumed looking down, dejectedly.

“I don’t know…” The idol muttered. She wasn’t on the same wavelength as Mukuro, and the soldier understood that with her next words. “Makoto’s gone. The trial… is going to come down to you and me. If everyone else has an alibi, then… we’re the only ones left.”

Mukuro’s eyes widened in terror.

“B-B-But **you and I didn’t murder Naegi-kun** …!” The soldier distressfully cried. She **knew** who had murdered Naegi-kun! The damn rules just had her by the throat, and she couldn’t say…!

Sayaka smiled bitterly.

“I know… If there’s really no other options, Kirigiri was the one that did him in.” The idol looked up gingerly. “But… that still leaves who killed Kirigiri. And… you and I know, Makoto **couldn’t** have killed her. Not even in self-defense. Makoto's too... gentle. Kind. And he was really sick... That leaves… us…”

Mukuro felt the sludgy darkness swirling about in her gut again.

“S-S-So… Y-Y-You think I did it…?” She whispered as if in a trance.

Sayaka continued, oblivious to the turmoil within Mukuro. She looked down uncertainly.

“Well, you **could** have done it… Your alibi’s as weak as mine, and you would have had the strength and motive, if Kirigiri killed Makoto…” Sayaka bit her lower lip and closed her eyes, seeming in defeat.

Mukuro took a wary step back in alarm and fear. The voice in her head giggled maniacally.

_‘So even the Pop Princess doubts ya~! I told you~! They all deserve to die…’_

There was no way to prepare for what Sayaka said next.

“… But even if that’s the only option left… I can’t just accuse you of being the murderer. Makoto trusted you, for better or for worse.” Sayaka raised her eyes to meet Mukuro’s shocked ones. Determination was clearly reflected in the idol’s sapphire orbs. “I’m not as strong as Makoto, so I can’t say whether I’ll be able to uphold it or not… But because he trusted you, I’m placing my faith in you, too. Because… no matter how grim it gets, I can’t imagine you’d… kill one of Makoto’s friends. Even if that friend… stabbed him in the back.”

Mukuro’s eyes watered miserably.

“M-Maizono…” The soldier’s voice cracked.

Sayaka looked down again, dejectedly.

“… I don’t know where that leaves us, though. If it is just the fifteen of us in this ridiculous game, I can’t convince the others of your innocence. Or mine, if I get accused instead… I have… to find who killed Makoto. I can’t let them get away with this, Ikusaba! I… can’t…” Sayaka took a ragged, shallow breath. “W-We didn’t kill Makoto, or Kirigiri, but I get the feeling… one of us is going to be found guilty. And… that’s wrong! That… can’t be right… We never even got a motive, this time...”

“…” Mukuro’s mouth was frozen. She… She wanted to speak out. To confess everything. But a glance at the security camera out of the corner of her eye… kept her mouth frozen shut.

Sayaka smiled bitterly at Mukuro’s continued silence. Even without words, she could feel… Mukuro empathized.

But the soldier also knew something… and wasn’t saying it. That was what her intuition was telling her. The problem became... Did that make Mukuro guilty? Either way, Sayaka needed to determine that through the trial. What was Mukuro guilty of? What was she innocent of?

Even Makoto would have wanted it this way.

“I-I don’t know what will happen at this point… But Ikusaba… I’m… going to put all of our hope in you.” The idol mumbled, keeping her gaze averted. Carefully, she inched forward… and clasped her hand with Mukuro’s. “I… can’t hold onto it any longer. It’s too painful… So… Please. Don’t let Makoto’s death… don’t let it be for nothing.”

As Sayaka retracted her hand, the soldier balled her hand into a fist instinctually. She squeezed her eyes shut and looked down, releasing tears quietly. The key that had started it all, it was back in her possession… Junko… could probably tell, unless by some miracle her attention wasn’t on them at the moment.

But that didn’t matter to Mukuro. The key that she gave to Makoto as an oath of her loyalty… He’d clearly trusted Sayaka to care for it while he was ill. And Sayaka in turn… was trusting her. Even when they were the only clear suspects, and she might very well be the murderer…

**Sayaka was trusting her** …

It wasn’t fair. Some part of her deep down wanted to resent the idol. Some part of her clearly **did** hate her ‘perfect’ guts… For all that voice’s crap about just killing the idol so casually…

But still. But still. But still.

**Sayaka trusted her**. Just like Naegi-kun. Just like Oogami.

How was she supposed to carry on with such… irreplaceable trust…? **What did they want from her**?!

…

There was no way she could be allowed to fail her mission now.

Sayaka’s interests and her own were clearly one and the same…

But that also meant… Mukuro couldn’t afford to die. No matter what transpired, Mukuro **had to survive**. Even if that meant… throwing Sayaka under the bus… Throwing… everyone… under the bus…

Mukuro cupped her own cheek as her eyes widened in shock as those thoughts registered in her head. Sayaka was looking down again, still oblivious to the turmoil in the soldier.

_‘Wh-What…? Wh-Why…? Why am I even **considering** that…?!’ _The soldier thought distressfully to herself.

Sayaka had just entrusted her with **everything** … **Sayaka trusted her** … Mukuro thought she would be more eager than ever to protect the idol, to protect everyone… just like Naegi-kun would want her to do…

…

_‘And yet if it gets in the way of the mission, you caaan’t~!’_ The voice spoke up mockingly again. _‘Face it, slugger! You are a **soldier**! We can’t all be undying optimists~! Well… I suppose in Naegi-kun’s case, he **was** a die-hard optimist… *snicker* Soldiers complete the mission no matter what! **No matter what** … And that means **everyone else is expendable**! It’s kind of exciting, isn’t it? If we actually **do** get everyone else executed, Junko-chan is gonna be so terribly **interested** … And won’t that be the ideal outcome for **us**? She’ll welcome us back with open arms, and **then** …’ _

As the voice chuckled darkly, Mukuro’s eyes shrank to pinpricks. Her skin once more felt clammy, and if she looked down at her palms, they were… shaking…

And not from fear… but **excitement** … from the **thrill** of such dangerous, enticing thoughts…

…

What was happening to her…?

~*~

Fujisaki bit his lower lip as he wandered back into the garden. Even now… he still wasn’t sure what to think about what he’d found. That’s why… he wanted someone else’s opinion on it.

“Fujisaki?” The biker asked, perplexed by the programmer’s appearance. “Somethin’ come up?”

Fujisaki’s brows knit together at the question. He looked up at Oowada questioningly.

“Could… could you come to the Data Processing Room with me?”

Mondo’s brow furrowed in confusion at the request.

“Eh? But I can’t just leave the crime scene, kid… ‘Sides, shouldn’t one of the others be available?” Even that asshat Togami…

Fujisaki poked his index fingers together nervously.

“W-Well… I-I’m not sure I… want to… N-Not about this… Not yet.” He frowned in concern… and worry.

Mondo blinked in astonishment at the programmer’s uncertainty. It was unlike him to distrust the others like this…

“What’d you find out?” The biker asked. “Couldn’t find proof Ikusaba was in there?”

Fujisaki chewed his lower lip anxiously.

“W-W-Well… it’s not so much… sh-she **wasn’t** in there… it’s…” Fujisaki trailed off, looking down, troubled. He tapped his chin anxiously. “O-Oowada…? Wh-When you’re trapped somewhere… H-How would you normally react…?”

Mondo scrunched his nose as he thought about it.

“Well… I’d try bustin’ out of there, obviously… I wouldn’t care how sturdy a door was, I’d beat the shit outta it!” Mondo knew it probably wasn’t something to sound proud of, but… He’d busted down some pretty sturdy doors in his time as an outlaw biker.

… Why did Fujisaki look more worried?

“R-Right…? It’s, like… instinct! When you’re trapped, you try to escape!” Fujisaki agreed with his friend. Even if he himself wouldn’t be able to break down a door like his friend, he’d still try to find a way to escape… it was human instinct.

Mondo rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

“So… what’s the problem? The door showed Ikusaba tried to get out, didn’t it?”

Fujisaki chewed his lower lip again and shook his head worriedly.

“Th-The Data Processing Room’s door d-didn’t show that much d-damage…” Fujisaki confessed. “S-Some was there… b-but… it was… The door with Monokuma painted on it! Th-That was the one that showed the most signs of someone trying to force it open! W-Way more than the door we came through!”

Mondo’s eyes widened in shock.

“Y-You serious?! Why would Ikusaba try breaking in **there** more? That’s not even an exit! … Is it…?”

Fujisaki tapped his index fingers together again anxiously.

“I-I don’t know… B-But I have a bad feeling about it. D-Did you want to come and see for yourself?”

Mondo scowled in determination. The hell kinda question was that? ‘Course he was gonna see this with his own eyes! Not that he didn’t trust Fujisaki… But that asshole Togami was right about verifying the truth for themselves.

The real question was why Ikusaba tried busting **that** door down instead… Even if it was pitch black like she said, she had to know which door was which… And she still gunned after the mystery door.

Somethin’ was definitely fishy…

~*~

“Somehow I knew I’d find you here…” Celes breathed a sigh as she stepped into the room.

Ikusaba’s was locked, of course. By process of elimination, that left Kirigiri’s room. Togami hadn’t been exaggerating when he said this room was bare… Well, there was one thing, sitting on the table.

Togami was glaring daggers at it, a finger raised to his temple in thought.

“That wooden block key… is for a locker in the dojo.” The heir mused, scowling all the while.

Celes placed her hands on her hips, eyeing the key curiously.

“And so…? What does this prove?”

Togami crossed his arms. He eyed the gambler shrewdly.

“… You and I both know that only one person has the key to this very room.” The blond seemingly shifted topics at random. “It should have been locked. Yet you and I got in here just fine.”

Celes nodded slowly in understanding.

“True… So you say it was open even before you tried to use Kirigiri’s key. Somebody must have a masterkey. Or perhaps Kirigiri secretly had a spare…”

Togami shook his head airily, once again raising a finger to his temple in thought.

“You and I both know those details are irrelevant. What **is** relevant… is that the killer would have had access to any other ‘keys’ on Kirigiri’s body. You know I reported there were none on her corpse. Ergo, only the killer could get in here after Kirigiri’s demise.”

Celes twirled a lock of hair around her finger nonchalantly as she sighed.

“I do wish you would get to the point, rather than beat around the bush…”

Togami bared his teeth as he snarled.

“And I wish **you** wouldn’t disperse information to certain suspicious parties until the trial… But I suppose neither of us can get what we want, can we?” The heir scoffed, crossing his arms again. “I’m going to check this locker out, but I already know what I’m going to find there. Whether Kirigiri had this locker key to begin with or whether the killer planted it here after the murder, that doesn’t matter in the end. What matters is the **reason** the killer would bother to go to such lengths… for such a pointless endeavor. Kirigiri wouldn’t bother hiding **those** things, and then die.”

Celes frowned at the heir’s musings. True, it didn’t make sense on the surface, but…

“Well, in the end, we still don’t know who the killer **is** , now do we?” It would make even less sense for the killer to hold onto this key and store it in their own room – that was a smoking gun. **That** was true senselessness.

Togami rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“I wonder… You and I both know Maizono couldn’t have planted that bomb. And since everyone **except** one person was together right before we began searching for Naegi, that throws even more doubt on that person’s ‘alibi’…”

Celes arched an eyebrow dubiously.

“Do you even know that bomb in the gym was the one that was used…?”

“Of course I checked.” Togami snapped waspishly at the gambler. “After Maizono and Ikusaba wandered into the dining hall, I doubled back to the gym. There’s no doubt it was the one that blew up Naegi’s corpse.”

Celes heaved a sigh. Togami’s distrust was going to be his own undoing, she just knew it…

“… Have you considered the possibility of a sixteenth person?” Celes asked, playing the Devil’s advocate. “No matter how you look at it, this all seems very intricate and too much like a setup… We don’t even know for sure that Kirigiri **was** the one in the suit that abducted Naegi…”

Togami looked down his nose at the gambler and sneered.

“Precisely…”

Celes narrowed her eyes darkly.

“Excuse me?”

Togami shook his head and then pointed at her arrogantly.

“Setting aside that there’s no way to prove a sixteenth individual is in here with us, and that this hypothetical person hasn’t interfered in the Killing Game before now, there’s still the question of **why the suit Kirigiri was found in lacks the bullet’s entry wound** …” He sneered again at the gambler’s confusion. “I told you all, did I not? Fujisaki, Maizono, and I **didn’t find** anything that the Monokuma File wouldn’t tell us… That includes the bullet hole that **should** have been there… Well, I suppose that’s a little misleading. After all, the file never said the killer outfitted Kirigiri in that suit after she was killed. Still, a little deception is necessary when setting a snare for a murderer… Ikusaba **will** slip up. And I’ll be there.”

Celes rubbed her temple in irritation.

“You really are incorrigible… Why you won’t even consider a sixteenth person is beyond me. Monokuma said it himself, did he not?” At the heir’s furrowed brow, she elaborated.

_“Mukuro Ikusaba! The Ultimate Soldier!” Monokuma preened. “I know, I know! I’ll even give you **full** transparency! I didn’t just give Ikusaba a chance to replace and pose as one of you… She was actually another lovely worker bee for yours truly! Yet another mole working for the magnificent Mastermind~!”_

Togami frowned as the bear’s annoying buzzing entered his ears as he recalled the memory.

“He… did say that…” The blond conceded, narrowing his eyes at the gambler.

“To this day, we still have not learned what happened to Enoshima.” Celes pointed out. “Monokuma ratted out Ikusaba and Oogami, but he only said Ikusaba **replaced** Enoshima… We still don’t know what happened to her.”

Togami remained thoughtfully silent before chuckling with mirth as he closed his eyes in dry amusement.

“I’ll concede your theory has **possibilities** … However, allow me to return the favor, since it’s **such** a mystery…” He opened his eyes and stared sharply at the gambler. “It’s true there are some places that we don’t have access to in this academy. And it’s true Enoshima could be lurking in any of them… However. There’s something else you haven’t thought about: In all our investigating, we haven’t come across any of the bodies of our former classmates, have we? So I ask you: If Ikusaba ‘replaced’ Enoshima… Why bother leaving a loose end lying around to come and kill any of us at a moment’s notice? The most logical thing to do would be to kill her, and stash her away where the other corpses would soon join her… That way, Ikusaba could replace Enoshima seamlessly and not have a wild card running amok behind the curtain. Would that not make the most sense?”

Celes furrowed her brow at Togami’s proposed theory. Certainly, there was nothing to prove Enoshima was alive… They had never encountered the true Enoshima here. There were only four areas left that they hadn’t inspected – the second floor dorms, the Monokuma door within the Data Processing Room, the Headmaster’s Office, and the Biology Lab. She could be behind any of them… but by the same token, she **could** be dead.

But therein lied the rub. They had no proof to assert Enoshima **was** dead. They were at an impasse. As much as it irked her to concede… until they found solid evidence of a sixteenth person, this game was between the fifteen of them.

And that meant Maizono and Ikusaba were the main suspects, aside from Kirigiri and Naegi-kun… Though, she was still rather certain Naegi-kun could be crossed off the suspects’ list because he didn’t have the heart of a killer. And **somebody** had to have placed Kirigiri in that suit, if Togami was to be believed about the lack of bullet hole in the suit… She’d have to verify with Fujisaki and/or Maizono later.

… Regardless. Ikusaba being the culprit, if that’s what all the evidence eventually pointed to… that was all much too **convenient** , wouldn’t you say? And if Maizono was framing her… how did she plant the bomb?

This whole thing smelled like a rigged game of poker…

~*~

_Mukuro frowned in concern as she took one more look around the area._

_“I don’t think it’s here, either, Naegi-kun…”_

_Makoto winced as he was turning up nothing, as well._

_“Y-Yeah… And I was really hoping I’d get lucky, too…” The luckster tried to not sound too anxious, but he suspected he failed pretty hard, based off the face Mukuro was making. He smiled wryly. “H-Hey… Don’t blame yourself, Ikusaba! I’m the klutz here. You’re just trying to help, and I really appreciate it! It’s… just my bad luck acting up again, probably.”_

_Makoto rubbed the back of his neck and chuckled sheepishly, though he probably shouldn’t be laughing at all. It’d mean a lot of trouble for Sayaka if anyone else stumbled on it… Why did he have to put his gift to her in the pocket that had the hole in it…? Why couldn’t he have noticed it sooner…? They were at a festival, for crying out loud! The risk of someone else finding it was way too high…!_

_Mukuro dipped her head shyly, looking away._

_“I-It’s no problem, Naegi-kun… I wanted to help.” And she did. Mukuro wanted to be useful to the luckster so bad… But it seemed she was as useless as ever…_

_Makoto frowned and tried thinking of ways to cheer the soldier up, but a third voice cut into their conversation._

_“Looking for this…?”_

_The soldier and luckster turned at the sound of the familiar voice, and Makoto’s eyes widened as he recognized the object the person was holding up in plain view._

_“K-Kirigiri…!” Makoto flushed a little in embarrassment. Leave it to the detective to find something they’d been searching for, for over fifteen minutes, too. That was definitely his pendant. Er… Sayaka’s, that is. … Or it would be. Makoto accepted it gratefully and sheepishly as the lilac-haired detective deposited it in his hands. “Th-Thanks… I-I… guess I owe you one, huh?”_

_Kyoko smiled amicably, closing her eyes calmly._

_“Hardly. I’m still repaying you for last week’s unfortunate screw-up… I shouldn’t have gotten you involved at all, but you still helped solve the case in its entirety. Ikusaba’s presence was a welcome help, as well…” The detective shook her head ruefully to clear away the light blush coating her cheeks. She then crossed her arms and gave a small, albeit smug, smile aimed at the luckster. “You might want to be more careful with that…”_

_Makoto winced, but nodded in total agreement._

_“Y-Yeah… Believe me, I about had a heart attack when I found it fell out of my pocket... I’m real lucky to have you guys!”_

_Kyoko ran a hand through her hair calmly._

_“I’ll help anytime you’re in trouble, Naegi… that’s a promise.” And it was. Naegi was one of the few people in the world she could actually call ‘friend’ and not have any reservations or regrets about it. Even setting aside all the cases he’d helped her on, unwittingly or not, Naegi just… supported her. His open and honest nature had the chance of getting him hurt, but it was always so refreshing to experience so consistently… That unwavering support practically demanded reciprocation, and Kyoko was going to give it._

_The luckster rubbed the back of his head bashfully. In doing so, however, he missed the conflicted and anxious look in Ikusaba’s eyes._

_Kyoko, of course, did not. She knew full well how Ikusaba had been helping the luckster find that pendant… and she had considered leaving the pendant out for the soldier to find, but the problem was that Ikusaba was watchful and observant of her surroundings; she would have picked up on Kyoko’s meddling… That would have been an even worse outcome. It was difficult enough watching the two of them from just the right distance that Ikusaba wouldn’t feel they were being tailed._

_… So instead, Kyoko waited for a better opportunity. And indeed one had presented itself, once she observed the luckster’s pockets in more detail. Specifically, how there wasn’t a telltale bulge in the pocket that lacked a hole._

_“… Hey, Naegi… You didn’t drop anything else, did you?” Kyoko innocently asked. Her smile widened just a little as the luckster’s eyes widened in shock and horror._

_“C-Crap…!” He checked his pockets to be doubly sure, but Kirigiri was right…! “I-I kept my cell phone in there, too!”_

_Mukuro blinked owlishly as the words registered to her._

_“Cell phone…?” Could one person **be** that unlucky…? Mukuro frowned as she reviewed her memories of the areas they’d searched so far. At the time, she’d been keeping an eye out for a pendant, but… “I… think I remember seeing something like that…”_

_Makoto looked to the soldier with such a hopeful gaze that her face dusted pink and she looked away shyly again._

_“Y-You saw it, Ikusaba?!”_

_“I-I think so…” Mukuro stuttered out in embarrassment. “Th-This way…”_

_As the soldier shyly showed Makoto the way as they ran off, Kyoko shook her head, never dropping her smile. Ikusaba really needed to be less harsher on herself… Naegi wasn’t the type to treat her different if she couldn’t be ‘useful’ – that’s not how he operated. Still, Kyoko wouldn’t judge the soldier for it; she likely had reasons for being overly self-critical._

_And it was really for the best that she hadn’t found that pendant, anyway… Ikusaba’s crush was fairly obvious to the more observant people in their class; helping Naegi find a gift he intended to give to a ‘rival’, that was going to backfire on the soldier badly. It always did… when Maizono was involved. Kyoko had observed that many times by now._

_Romance was not the detective’s forte… But she wasn’t blind. She’d just have to lend a hand in her own way… at least until Naegi wised up. It’s not like he was leading Ikusaba along – he was… just that friendly and kind. And Ikusaba was enraptured by that, thus, she desperately wanted to support him._

_Kyoko could relate to the soldier in that regard. Makoto… just had that kind of natural magnetism. He was going to accomplish great things, someday… The specifics of that promising future were still shrouded in mystery… But Kyoko was fine with that._

_Mysteries were destined to be unraveled. And Kyoko was going to enjoy unveiling this one, piece by piece…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Flashback at the end of the chap instead of the beginning~ I thought it was a nice change of pace. Next week might be back to normal. I dunno. Depends on how much "post-trial" I get to. XD
> 
> So many people hoping and praying Makoto (and to some extent, Kyoko) isn't dead... It's like you guys DON'T WANT a maniacal supersoldier on a hell-bent rampage through what's left of Japan! *giggles, holding the escape button* Maybe I should just press the button and... Oohoo~ Only joking... n___n
> 
> That said... You all probably weren't expecting it to be this "peaceful". It's a fragile peace... One that's probably going to go out the window in the trial, once they really get going. Sayaka still hasn't let the info about the kitchen knife slip yet, after all. Celes is holding it together for now, but that might all come crashing down with a few choice words and high tensions. And Mukuro.... Hohoho... Mukuro~.... :D
> 
> We're reeeally getting down to the meat of it with Mukuro now. I whipped it like a dead horse here. It's NOT said outright, but you should be able to guess her intentions and desires by now. At least the most volatile ones. Woof. :D That said, why is she holding back? Why isn't she gunning for what she wants RIGHT NOW? Well... That's part of the melting pot that is her mind. We're seeing a major storm in her character because Hope and Despair are fusing together so violently in her... There's a lot of conflict. A lot of 'rejection' of philosophies on both sides of the board... A lot of "acceptance", too, reluctant or otherwise. You really don't know where she's going to land up by the end of all this. It's all very exciting. :3
> 
> As for the other clues left here... Well. You'll see how it all comes together, eventually. Maybe not all of it in the trial - that'd be too easy. I just wanna get to Chapter 6 already... so exciting~... *Kokichi laugh* n_____n
> 
> "Take me on home to the academy~ Never alone in the academy~ Anarchy ruled, it was wild! But through it all, you never smiled~ Joke's on you, I'm in your head so look who's laughing now!
> 
> Do you remember in Chapter 4~? I killed your girl, sooo pretty~ That was the night you let me die! But when I looked you in the eye, that's when I knew, we'd be together~ Look who's laughing now!
> 
> I'm stuck in your head and I'm laughing! I filled you with dread and I can't stop laughing! Some of your favorites are dead and I can't stop laughing! What else can I do?! Now I'm part of you.
> 
> I am the clown prince of crime~ And we've had a hell of a time~ You're part of me, I'm part of you! And now there's nothing left to do! I just can't wait 'til I'm in control~ Who'll be laughing then?
> 
> I drove you round the bend and I'm laughing~ I'm with you to the end and I can't stop laughing! I killed all of your friends and I can't stop laughing~ *cackles* Oh yeah!
> 
> Think I can taste your fear! Now that my time is near~ I'm in your blood, I'm so alive~ I only wish you'd let me drive! It won't be long 'til I make you kill~ Who'll be laughing then?
> 
> Kyoko's dead, and I'm laughing~ HA! Makoto Naegi's dead, and I can't stop laughing~ I'M even dead, and I can't stop laughing! What else can I do?! Now I'm part of you... 
> 
> I drove you around the bend, and I'm laughing~ I'm with you 'til the end, and I can't stop laughing~ I killed all your friends and I can't stop laughing... I'm Cock-a-doodle-doo~ All because of you~
> 
> I'm stuck in your head and I'm laughing! I filled you with dread and I can't stop laughing! Some of your favorites are dead and I can't stop laughing! *cackles*
> 
> I'm stuck in your head and I'm laughing! I filled you with dread and I can't stop laughing! Some of your favorites are dead and I can't stop laughing! 
> 
> What else can I do?! Now I'm part of you~~~ 
> 
> Stop me if you've heard this one before!" 
> 
> Joker serenading is a treat~ Improvisation is a parlor trick. Anyone can do it~ :3


	26. Chapter 5, Part 5: Smile at Despair in the Name of Hope

_It was like stepping into ancient ruins… Well, no, “ancient” might be stretching it – but still, it appeared some time had passed since the second floor dorms were reduced to this dilapidated state. Kyoko moved about cautiously and silently, not really sure what to expect._

_Upon reaching the first branching hallway, Kyoko saw a huge pile of rubble obstructing at least half of the length of the hall. And the few dorm rooms left were in similar states of inaccessibility. But there was one room… One room was accessible._

_The mysterious girl didn’t hesitate. She approached the room and cautiously opened it – didn’t hear anyone inside. Upon going inside, she noticed the floor was a paler, grayish blue than the dorms on the first floor, and the walls were purple. Like the first floor dorms, metal plates covered the windows. Yet the rest of the room was… very much in disrepair. Concrete from the ceiling had collapsed everywhere, there were holes in the wall, and the furniture was pretty damaged._

_It didn’t seem like she’d find a lot of clues in here… But Kyoko checked, because her instincts were telling her to do so. The bathroom was inaccessible, so she didn’t even try there. But she checked the drawers – all empty – and in the corners of the room, as well as behind and underneath the rubble that she was able to move._

_Nothing._

_The mysterious girl was about to leave, but then she remembered… underneath the bed. It seemed unlikely she would find anything there, but if she was going to be thorough, she might as well go all the way. Crouching down on all fours, the lilac-haired girl peeked beneath the bed and looked carefully. After a few moments of fruitless searching, Kyoko was about to get up, but then a gleam in the darkness caught her eye – it was so small, she almost dismissed it as a trick of the light. But reaching out… Kyoko soon found her fingers raking against a small chain of sorts; pulling it towards her, she brought the object out into the open and stared._

_“A pendant…?” The mysterious girl mused to herself. It was rather plain, though it was made of platinum silver – the shape was that of an oval, and it nestled in her palm so easily. Kyoko wasn’t sure why, but she felt a strange sense of nostalgia holding it… Unable to help herself, she opened up the pendant to look inside._

_Her heart froze at the sight. Rather than finding a total stranger pictured within, it was a pair of faces she knew all too well._

_“Naegi and Maizono…” Kirigiri’s gloved finger grazed the photo as she stared at it. It was… exactly the kind of photo you’d expect a lovey-dovey couple to take. Their upper bodies were visible as Sayaka was shown to be nuzzling into Makoto affectionately, his arm wrapped around her side, and her head resting on his shoulder as they both smiled at the camera. Smiling with a sense of nostalgia, Kyoko closed her eyes and grinned despite herself. Her thumb clicked the pendant shut again. “I told Naegi to take better care of this…”_

_Kyoko went rigid and blinked as those words had come out, unbidden. She stared down at the piece of jewelry, mystified. She didn’t have any recollection of knowing Naegi or Maizono before coming to Hope’s Peak – but then again, a lot of her memories were missing, it seemed. If she did know them, which it **felt** like she did… And if Naegi was truly genuine about having no recollection of meeting her either… Then… _

_Then there was a lot more going on here than they were aware of. They **all** had amnesia… But just how many of their memories were stolen away… they had yet to determine that… _

_~*~_

_Something was wrong. Her instincts were screaming at her to hurry, so it was with befuddled, yet determined purpose that the lilac-haired girl returned to the first floor of the dorms._

_Nobody around at this time of night. That was within expectations. As she turned the corner to the dorms proper, she was alarmed to see one door wide open. With urgent strides she made her way over... And from the doorway saw Maizono lying on the floor. No Naegi in sight._

_A cursory look over the room revealed an unkempt bed, but nothing else appeared to be amiss. Naegi's room looked practically identical to her own spartan one, minus the gold sheaf sword sitting on a stand. She didn't have time to dwell on that, however, with Naegi clearly missing from his own room. He'd been taken, Kirigiri surmised. But how did she proceed from here...? Without further clues..._

_A groan alerted the mysterious girl to the other occupant in the room, who stirred uneasily._

_"K-Kirigiri...!" Sayaka blearily cried out, registering her presence after looking around. Kyoko took a composed breath._

_"Maizono. I understand the situation is grave, but I need you to remain calm." The mysterious girl watched as the idol shakily got to her feet. "Don't strain yourself - leave Naegi-kun to me. Just... tell me what you can about who took him. Their clothes, anything you can use to identify-"_

_Kirigiri watched as the idol collapsed_ _. And from the bluenette's foggy eyes, she hadn't heard a word before passing out again. The mysterious girl could only smile wryly at the turn of events. Seemed she'd be on her own. She briefly considered waking Oowada up to watch over Maizono, but he'd get worked up and want to go searching for Naegi with her, and that would waste more time._

_Every second was vital. She had a hunch that the Mastermind was making their move, and there could be no wasted movements._

_Kirigiri thumbed the pendant in her pocket._

_... That said, she had no right to keep this from Maizono and Naegi. Moreover, if something happened to her, the Mastermind wasn't going to just let them have it. If she left it with Maizono, however, and Naegi wasn't saved, it would only dishearten and make her more anxious._

_Deciding on compromise, Kirigiri made her way over to the desk by Naegi's bed and left the pendant there. It was in plain view, so they would find it. But if Naegi was still missing by the time Maizono woke up again, at least she wouldn't be further confused and panicked - no doubt she would spur the others to finish what Kyoko could not._

_Kyoko thought about leaving a short note, but there just wasn't enough time. Deciding to hasten her search, Kyoko set out, unsure what she would find. What she did know, however... was that she couldn't leave Naegi at the hands of the Mastermind. She'd done that to him once already._

_Never again. This time, she would have his back. She would save him._

~*~

The trial room was obscenely garish. As the six of them filed out of the elevator, they each made a concerted effort to not linger or stare too long. Of course, that effort really amounted to nothing when the bright, obnoxious colors were always in their peripheral… It was painful just standing there.

Then again, for most of them gathered there, the incident had scarred them enough as it was… A nauseating courtroom was a trifle by comparison.

“Sooo…” Monokuma drew out the word condescendingly as he sat on his cushy throne, like always. “I think we can skip the intro, since even the ignoramuses in the group must understand the stakes by now! How about you just get crackin’? Sound good? Okay~!”

Mondo growled lowly at the obvious jab.

“Get cracking, he says…I’ll crack **his** head if he doesn’t shut up…!”

Celes sighed airily, eyes darting to a certain recently added portrait.

“Ignore him; we have enough headaches as it is…” Naturally, she wasn’t just referring to the case itself, or even the eyesore of a background.

No, Monokuma had gone farther with Kirigiri and Naegi’s portraits. In lurid colors, which stood out painfully on the black and white portraits, phrases were painted on rather than the X’s that the other portraits had. Kirigiri’s read “Tu Fui Ego Eris”, while Naegi’s had a plain “R.I.P.”

… The bear had a clear death wish.

“Wh-Where do we even start, though…?” Fujisaki mumbled, hands clasped in front of his waist. It honestly felt like they both did and did not have a lot of information to go over. It was… vexing.

Togami raised his index finger to his temple in thought.

“Well… A good warmup would probably be the time of death. Why overcomplicate things?”

Mukuro narrowed her eyes at the heir’s patronizing tone.

“The time of death…?” Among other things, she’d been denied even a glimpse of the Monokuma File this time… Togami really wanted to control the information she was privy to; unsurprisingly, she was his favorite suspect.

Fortunately Oowada and Ludenberg had brought that up while investigating the garden. So she wasn’t completely blind.

“Makoto…” Sayaka mumbled, hugging herself and looking down dejectedly.

Togami scowled and crossed his arms.

“Let’s not beat around the bush. Last night, after I found Monokuma was comatose, I went around looking for everybody to solidify alibis. I ran into Oowada in the entrance hall first, and had him go to check the dorms while I myself went up to the garden to check if Celes was there, since she seemed drawn to that place…”

Celes rolled her eyes and placed her hands on her hips.

“In short, what he’s saying is that the garden didn’t have any bodies in it at around 10pm. He and I can both attest to this. And since we discovered the bodies between 8:00 and 8:30am… The murders occurred between 10pm and 8am. Does that about sum it up?”

Togami’s scowl only deepened.

“Not quite. Oowada.” The heir inclined his head at the biker, who growled threateningly at the condescension.

“After the asshat bossed me around, I bumped into Fujisaki, and we went to check on the rest of you guys. Couldn’t find Kirigiri, but we did see Ikusaba in front of Naegi’s door. Said Naegi still wasn’t doin’ well, and she wasn’t gonna abandon him.” Mondo rubbed the back of his head, looking down with a conflicted gaze. “Not like I was gonna argue with that logic. I figured Maizono musta been in there with him, too, so me ‘n Fujisaki returned to the gym after we couldn’t find Kirigiri.”

Celes held a knuckle over her mouth in concern.

“Togami and I never encountered Kirigiri either. Of course, with just two of us searching, there were inevitable gaps in our search net. I’m honestly surprised that Togami didn’t employ a more rigorous method with his paranoia…”

Togami snorted derisively.

“’Paranoia’, you say, and yet two of us wound up dead…” The heir shook his head in irritation. “Regardless. Ludenberg and I were together for the whole search, and we joined Oowada and Fujisaki in the gym not too long after failing to locate Kirigiri, Ikusaba, or anyone else. The bottom line is: For the duration of nighttime, up until we began searching for Naegi in the morning, the four of us had **perfect alibis**. We were either together as a group or in pairs at all times. With this in mind, let’s now return to the time of death.”

“Yeah, yeah… After coverin’ your own ass…” Mondo groused, hand twitching.

Fujisaki poked his index fingers together, frowning anxiously.

“K-Kirigiri died at 3:30am… W-Wouldn’t that mean… Naegi died around the same time…?”

“Not necessarily.” Celes muttered, knuckle still covering her mouth. “Naegi-kun’s case was… different. If he was still sick, the killer could eliminate him at any time. And because Monokuma omitted that detail from the File… we can be sure his time of death was of tremendous importance.”

Mukuro narrowed her eyes angrily.

“You all were mentioning Naegi-kun’s body was ‘dry’ before the explosion… Wouldn’t that mean his body was brought up to the garden after the sprinklers went off at 7:30am?”

Togami sneered and pointed at the soldier reproachfully.

“You’d like it to be that simple, wouldn’t you? Alas, the vinyl sheet in the shed proves you wrong. But don’t take my word for it. Fujisaki?”

At being put under the spotlight, the programmer shivered nervously. It didn’t help that Oowada looked as if he was going to explode at the heir’s callousness; Fujisaki simply acquiesced to avoid in-fighting.

“Th-That vinyl sheet… One side of it was spotless and dry, while the other side was dirty and was still a little wet!” Fujisaki poked his chin thoughtfully. “I-I guess… using that… The killer could have draped it over Naegi’s body to keep it from getting wet!”

“That would make the most sense…” Celes conceded. “Think about it. It’s easier to set up the scene hours in advance, and then just remove the vinyl sheet **after** the sprinklers have gone off… It’s the least amount of work.”

Sayaka, who hadn’t spoken up in a while, looked up with determination.

“H-Hold on… It just occurred to me – that sheet is strange, if it was used for that purpose! I mean… The other side was clean and dry! B-But Makoto… Makoto was…” Abruptly, the idol trailed off less confidently as she resumed hugging herself and looking back to the floor with a panicked expression. She had tried her best to avoid thinking about that knife… but now the guilt was back full force… The idol tried to focus her breathing so she wouldn’t hyperventilate, but she only barely managed to succeed.

Mondo’s eyes widened, however, as he realized what the idol had tried bringing up.

“H-Hey… Yeah, you’re right! Naegi was stabbed with that kitchen knife! And that blood around the wound hadn’t dried yet! Shouldn’t there be bloodstains on the dry side of the sheet?!”

Togami narrowed his eyes in thought. He hadn’t considered that during the investigation.

“That… is true…”

Celes disagreed with a small frown.

“No… I would not get hung up on that blood. I think that’s just another one of the killer’s traps – the bloodstains are red herrings.”

Togami turned to the gambler sternly. Having employed a similar tactic himself in a previous trial, he knew this possibility had merit.

“Explain. Now.”

“A-Are you saying the killer used blood packs from the infirmary?!” Fujisaki asked with wide eyes, also recalling Togami’s fake murder.

Mukuro gritted her teeth as she glared at the gambler.

“Are you saying… **that’s** why the chickens went missing?”

Celes raised a knuckle over her mouth as she articulated her thoughts.

“Well, you **are** the one who brought up that discovery… It’s the first thing that sprang to mind when I heard it.”

Mukuro knew if this kept up, the noose was going to tighten around her neck even before they brought up her lack of alibi… She couldn’t allow the trial to progress in this manner. Mukuro had to **live** … For Sayaka, who **trusted** her. For the sake of the mission. **She had to live**.

“Naegi-kun’s body didn’t have any bloodstains around it!” The soldier brought up stiffly. “If the chickens were killed and the blood splashed over the body, **some** of it would have wound up on the floor!”

Togami crossed his arms and glowered at the soldier.

“Unfortunately for you, I found a blood-soaked cloth during the investigation.” The heir sneered at the dark-haired girl being caught off-guard. “That’s right. Everything has an explanation. I’m willing to bet that you wish you hadn’t brought up those chickens so casually…”

Mukuro trembled in rage, but held herself back for the moment.

“Where did you even find a cloth like that…? It couldn’t have been anywhere in the garden. You didn’t mention anything like that was found in the shed!”

“Because I found it elsewhere.” Togami replied glibly, inclining his chin at the soldier arrogantly. “I’ll touch on that point later, but for now, the important takeaway from this is that it was possible to use the blood from those chickens as red herrings! And while it would have certainly taken a little more effort to plant the evidence and clean up the inconvenient parts, it’s still a lot easier than transporting the bodies to the garden after the sprinklers went off after 7:30. Would not have taken nearly as much time.”

Mukuro had no rebuttal for that. The logic held, and they appeared to have the evidence to back it up. Leave it to Junko to make it impossible to find even an atom-sized inconsistency…

“So, wait… We’re basically back to square one.” Mondo muttered as he rubbed the back of his head, looking down. “I mean, fine, the murder coulda taken place before the morning announcement… But so what?! Our suspect list ain’t any shorter!”

At the biker’s words, Sayaka flinched and Mukuro narrowed her eyes dangerously. Togami smirked, closing his eyes and crossing his arms cockily.

“Plankton, even this will be explained in time… Let’s actually look at the people that are left able to commit this murder and everything that came after it.” Togami raised an index finger to his temple. “We know Kirigiri died at 3:30am – that takes her out of the running because she couldn’t have removed the vinyl sheet from Naegi’s corpse after the sprinklers turned off. Ergo, the only people left are Naegi, Maizono, and Ikusaba.”

Sayaka’s panicked stare became livid as she registered Togami’s words.

“Y-You… You’re actually naming Makoto a **suspect** …?!” The idol hissed darkly, glaring furiously at the Togami heir.

Mukuro’s body trembled in rage yet again, and she bowed her head. Her words came out cold and edged with steel.

“Naegi-kun couldn’t have set up his own murder scene… **Naegi-kun wouldn’t murder ANYONE**!!!”

Togami crossed his arms again and snorted.

“I’m not removing anyone from the suspect list without concrete evidence or irrefutable testimony.” The heir pointed arrogantly at both the idol and soldier. “Don’t blame me. You all opened my eyes to how **inane** you all can be over simple sentiment and circumstances! Maizono, we only have your **word** that Naegi was taken by the person in the mask, that he wasn’t capable of fighting back and that neither were you… And Ikusaba, you’re even worse off with no one being able to confirm your whereabouts until after we discovered the bodies! **Either one of you would cover for Naegi if he killed Kirigiri in self-defense**! After all, if he was going to die anyway because of the trial and execution system, you might as well all go together… Correct?”

A frosty, suffocating tension fell over the group at Togami’s blistering accusations. No one could believe the Togami heir was capable of proposing such a cold-hearted theory. Venomous, foul, hate-filled objections bubbled in the throats of everyone but Fujisaki, but for several tense moments no one was capable of uttering a coherent sentence. They were too saturated with emotion to work their mouths – shock, outrage, disbelief, grief, malice, and hate… All these feelings and more blended and brewed together into a cocktail of emotion in their hearts and minds. The volatile concoction was simply too potent for any of them to handle. Togami had gone… too far… There was no excuse for his words, and they weren’t going to allow him to take them back…

Even if there was reasoning behind his words… That reasoning was **wrong**. His **theory** didn’t consider Naegi as a person at all – he would have been appalled if his friends repeated the same mistakes, especially over him! Sayaka and Mukuro both would have treasured his feelings, **the logic didn’t hold**!

Monokuma giggled in the background as they all struggled for words.

“My, my~! Naegi-kun took his own life out of **shame** and his little lovebirds covered for him?! Maizono, you **shouldn’t have**!”

Sayaka froze at the bear’s foreboding taunts.

“Sh… Shouldn’t have…?” Her dark glare was trained on the monochrome bear, but her words were tinged with fear. Monokuma laughed at the despair.

“Why, that **kitchen knife** , of course! You gave it to him, right?! It must’ve been sooo nostalgic~! You, Naegi-kun… premeditated killing…”

Mukuro’s eyes hardened as she turned her glare on the idol. She knew Junko wouldn’t bring this up without it being relevant in some way… And that meant she was missing something critical.

Sayaka paled as Monokuma went there. Her body felt numb, and she had to lean on the witness stand to steady herself. Her rage melted into horror and terror as she looked down at the floor and began to lose control of her breathing.

“Th-That’s not… I-I-I d-didn’t…!” Sayaka whispered before choking back a sob. Tears ran down her face as it all came crashing back to her… What she nearly attempted to do, so very long ago… The hopelessness that had seized her, the conviction she thought she had in taking a life in order to escape this hellhole… The **guilt** that ate away at her because she had even **considered** framing Makoto for her own selfish ends… The blood that would have been on her hands if she had actually gotten away with it…! **Makoto’s blood** …!

“Sh-Shit…! Maizono, you alright?!” Mondo asked, feeling incredibly worried by Sayaka’s hysterical reaction to Monokuma’s goading. Sayaka just shook her head fiercely.

“N… Never again…!” The idol looked up at them all with wide, panicked eyes. “ **I would never do that to him ever again**!!!”

Celes narrowed her eyes at the idol’s hysteria. This wasn’t simple panic over a proposed scenario… Something had happened. Something the rest of them didn’t know about.

“What… did you do…?” The gambler kept her words level and controlled. But anger was bubbling just beneath the surface…

Sayaka clammed up at this, but she remained rigid as she kept leaning on her podium. Her fear mounted the more they scrutinized her. Chihiro spoke up timidly.

“Y-You can tell us, Maizono! Wh-Whatever it is… It’s in the past! It can’t hurt you anymore!” Oh, Fujisaki, if only you knew…

Mondo scowled as he nodded firmly in agreement.

“Fujisaki’s right! We’ve all made mistakes. We ain’t gonna judge you for something that never affected us!”

Monokuma giggled as Sayaka withdrew further into herself. He raised a paw, showing off his grinning side deviously.

“Hey, hey, Maizono~? Back on the night I presented the first motive… Why’d you **go to Naegi’s room when nothing strange had happened yet**?” The bear relished in the rising tension in the room. Sayaka’s shoulders shook as her whole body stiffened. “Did you two have an inappropriate relationship? What do you think your fans thought when they **saw** you make a move on a boy by sneaking into his room? Or were you there for some **other** reason?”

Sayaka’s pupils dilated as the bear brought up the live broadcast again. That only made her sin a million times worse… Not because she was ashamed of being seen with Makoto, she’d repeat that ‘mistake’ every time if that was all it was. No. People **saw** her take that knife from the kitchen… The sharper viewers would have pieced together what she was planning, if they didn’t have an inkling already from watching her “prepare” herself in her room… Some might have even suspected she was going to kill Makoto – and after watching her interact with the luckster, would have realized it was **worse** than that because she was going to **use** him, and…

God. **What had she done** …

“I… I…” The idol trailed off helplessly. She had no excuses. Even if she called it off in the end, she had still…

**What had she done** …

“Hey, hey~ What were you gonna do to your close friend you stalked in middle school? I’ll support most kinks, but bringing a **kitchen knife** with you seems a bit extreme!” Monokuma giggled again as dawning realization hit the others. The connection to the current incident. And…

“Maizono…” Mukuro hissed darkly, glaring daggers at the idol. “Were… Were you going to **kill** Naegi-kun that night?!”

Sayaka’s pupils shrank further as she shook her head rapidly.

“N… N-No…! I didn’t… I wasn’t going to…!” The idol fumbled with her words, shaking head in denial all the while. “I-I didn’t know the rules about trials! S-S-So… I…!”

Sayaka choked on her words as her mind continued to rip itself apart. Celes trembled furiously as she pieced it together.

“So you were going to use Naegi-kun as a **patsy** … You were going to commit murder, and make **him** take the fall so you could escape…” Celes spat venomously. “ **Fuck you**! You give **me** shit for trying to kill, but you yourself had already **thought** about it! **And on top of that**! You were going to throw Naegi-kun to the wolves!”

“H… Holy shit…” Mondo breathed out in awe, eyes widened. Across from him, Fujisaki was tearing up again. “M-Maizono planned that…?”

Sayaka started to tear up as the gambler’s words ripped into her. It was like razor wire had pierced her heart and was grinding back and forth through her.

“I didn’t mean to…!” The idol wailed, trying to rationalize her thoughts. “O-Once I g-got out… I-I was going to…!”

“You were going to **what**?!” Celes raged, raising her ring finger as she snarled. “Even **if** your plan went without a hitch and Monokuma didn’t have that shitty rule about the rest of us getting axed, what did you **think** we were going to do to him when you left?! Unwitting or not, he would’ve been your **accomplice**! Best case, no one would have trusted him ever again! Worst case, he would’ve been dismembered or murdered! At least when **I** attempted murder, I did it when I could have taken him with me!”

Sayaka hugged herself and squeezed her eyes shut tight. She knew this. She knew this. Sheknewthissheknewthisshe **knewthis**!!! She knew **all too well**! Her plan had so many holes from start to finish, and she was the **worst** for picking Makoto to take the fall… **She knew this** … But **still** …!

“But **I didn’t go through it**!!!” Sayaka screamed in anguish, still refusing to meet anyone’s gaze. She gasped as she tried to regain control of her breathing. “I… I didn’t… go through… with it…”

Togami snorted derisively. He crossed his arms, glaring at the idol sharply.

“You think that matters? Of course you hesitated back then, or we wouldn’t all be here.” The heir balled his hand into a fist and snarled at the idol. “You had the drive to kill before. There is **nothing** stopping you from succumbing to those impulses again!”

Arguments bubbled up in Sayaka’s throat, but nothing came out. Because she couldn’t deny it. She **had** considered it again, back in the third motive… Her eyes welled up with fresh tears as she cried in anguish, clenching her eyes shut again.

Mondo shook his fist in indignant rage… but not at Sayaka.

“Fuck off, asshole!” Mondo yelled at the heir, and shot the gambler a dirty look as well. “Like **hell** she’d kill Naegi!”

“If he was already dead, I doubt she’d have much trouble stabbing him…” Celes spat furiously. “It’s not even the cause of death, right? We proved those bloodstains were fake, so the stabbing must have been post-mortem.”

Mukuro had been rigid all this time, listening to the back and forth as her rage and resentment bubbled beneath the surface. Not just those… but betrayal, as well… Sayaka really had contemplated……

_‘Y’know, I’d been hearing that the industry wound idols up tight enough that they’d snap… Leave it to Junko to reveal it all! Sayaka Maizono’s finally gone off the deep end, and **you** let her get close to Naegi-kun~!’ _The voice crooned victoriously. Mukuro just glared murderously at the idol that was rapidly withdrawing into herself and trying to shut out the accusations.

How long had this been a possibility? How long had Maizono **actually been a threat** to Naegi-kun in the two years they’d known him? Had she always had that grizzly potential? Mukuro liked to think that she was adept at threat assessment. Hagakure had always rubbed her the wrong way, and so it came as no surprise when he inevitably endangered Naegi-kun’s life. Oowada, Ludenberg, Fukawa, Togami, and her sister were the other candidates that always had her on higher alert around Naegi-kun. Admittedly, she lowered her guard somewhat around Junko at times, but the rest… That didn’t even account for the few times she felt on-guard around Oogami, Asahina, and Kirigiri, who (usually) didn’t mean to endanger the luckster, but ended up doing so because of circumstances.

… Naegi-kun had stuck his neck out way too often for her tastes. Even when Oogami could handle herself, he worried about her. Even when Asahina got too excitable and dragged him into things he clearly wasn’t ready for. And even when Kirigiri’s cases got too dangerous, he threw himself into them anyway because Kirigiri needed help…

The worst part was Mukuro had been absent **far** too often in Naegi-kun’s daily school life for her own liking. Junko had been high maintenance, and she had plans for the Tragedy that needed executing… It left Naegi-kun vulnerable to the whims of their unreasonable and undeserving classmates.

And maybe that was why she missed the signs with Maizono… Damnit, if she’d been more attentive…! **Junko** would have seen, with her Ultimate… Analyst…

…

_‘Oh yeah… You hadn’t worked that out yet~…’_ The voice in her head teased. _‘Didn’t ya know from watching her? Junko thinks, like, 500 steps ahead of almost everyone. She was looking forward to the Despair that Maizono was going to bring him. I guess it **was** the death of him, after all!’_

Mukuro grinded her teeth in frustration. There never had been a possibility of Naegi-kun making it out of this nightmare… Not a chance in hell. Junko was never going to spare him out of some sick sense of pity for her sister – he was always going to die. And like an idiot, Mukuro had gone along with it…

…

In the end, there was only one way for justice to be served…

“Alright, you crazy kids! Wrap it up!” Monokuma sighed dramatically as he patted his belly contently. “You’re supposed to be debating who killed Makoto Naegi and Kyoko Kirigiri! So let’s get back to it with gusto, eh?!”

Mondo growled in annoyance, but Togami cut him off before he could say anything.

“He’s right. In the end, our prime suspects are Maizono and Ikusaba. Naegi’s still a possibility, but we should scrutinize these two first.”

Celes growled and glared at Togami caustically.

“Fuck that! Naegi-kun never tried to kill. Not even once. But these two…” Her glare whipped back to the girls in question. Sayaka flinched, while Mukuro returned her glare easily.

“Look who’s talking!” Mondo sniped back at the gambler. He raised a twitching hand in aggravation. “We can talk in circles all day about whodunit, but does anyone actually have any **real clues** we can go over?! I feel like we haven’t gotten **anywhere**!”

Fujisaki poked his index fingers together anxiously.

“Wh-What about the cause of death…? W-We haven’t talked about that yet…” The programmer mumbled.

Mondo’s eyes widened at that.

“O-Oh yeah… Good thinkin’, kid…”

Celes held a knuckle over her mouth as she grudgingly reeled herself in from her glare match with Mukuro.

“The stab wounds were post-mortem. **Two** chickens went missing, and it would’ve been excessive to waste them both on Naegi-kun…”

Togami crossed his arms and scowled.

“Naegi’s cause of death is a foregone conclusion. The Monokuma File mentions stab wounds, explosion damage, and suffocation. The File already rules out the explosion. And with the stab wound as a red herring, that leaves only one possibility. He was suffocated to death.”

Mukuro narrowed her eyes in aggravation.

“Can I see the Monokuma File **now** , since we’re in the middle of the trial?”

Togami scoffed at the request.

“When we haven’t even gone over Kirigiri’s death? Not on your…” The heir snarled as Mondo handed Mukuro the File. “Plankton…!”

Mondo glared back at the heir.

“I’m done takin’ shit from you, asshole! Naegi’s dead, and you **actually** accused him of bein’ the killer! You crossed the line!”

Mukuro ignored the back and forth as she finally got to look at the File. Idly, she skimmed the measurements, and planned to move on… However, some numbers caught her attention, and her eagle eyes homed in on them.

_‘5’4”, 104 lbs., and the chest being 31 in… Why do those measurements seem off…?’_ The soldier narrowed her eyes suspiciously. They **seemed** right. Naegi-kun was rather small, compared to everyone in their class. But something was bugging her… No matter how minor, the numbers seemed **off** … Just by the **slightest** amount…

_‘_ _Oh, who cares about the measurements?! You really think Junko made a mistake eyeballing Naegi-kun to get those? Junko’s not as perfect as she says she is, and you know it!’_ The voice ranted in the back of her mind.

Yet no matter how hard Mukuro tried, they still bothered her. And more to the point…

_‘You seem like you’re in an awful hurry.’_ Mukuro deadpanned. The soldier was one to listen to her instincts, and they were screaming at her about this detail. Even that voice should realize… After all, they were the same person…

… She really should stop talking to herself.

_‘And you’re too **slow**!’ _The voice shot back uncreatively. _‘Wasting your time on trifling details… when vengeance on Maizono is **right within your grasp**! Get the heat off of us, and point it where it belongs! **Maizono deserves to die**!’_

Mukuro found it increasingly hard to disagree… But somehow, she still hesitated. Mukuro was livid at what Maizono had nearly done to Naegi-kun… That hadn’t changed. It felt like she’d been slapped in the face and the earth crumbled beneath her, leaving her to fall into an endless abyss.

… And yet. Mukuro could not forget that it was Junko who orchestrated this. Junko who **killed Naegi-kun**. Even if her image of Maizono was forever shattered, she still couldn’t imagine the idol actually crossing that line. She had no motive to. There had been no motive presented this round. As much as Mukuro yearned to, she **couldn’t** convince herself that Maizono was actually the killer.

But even if it was a lie… Why should Mukuro not use it? Why should she have to pull her punches? Maizono and Junko betrayed her trust and used her as a punching bag. And if Junko executed the rest of them for getting the answer “wrong”… She should care… why? Junko had to know that if she executed everyone else, there’d be no meat shields between them anymore…

And if Junko tried executing her along with everyone else for getting it “wrong”… Well. Mukuro wasn’t about to lie down and die. She entertained the rules **for now** because she was waiting to see Junko’s endgame on this trial. But she’d fight dirty herself, if that’s what it came down to.

While the soldier had been lost within her own thoughts and emotions, the debate had carried on without her. Mukuro only belatedly realized that when she tuned back in again.

“… So in the end, the gunshot wound is the likeliest cause of death.” Togami had a finger raised to his temple shrewdly. “With that out of the way, why don’t we address the weapons themselves?”

Mukuro scowled as she skimmed the last details of Kirigiri’s death.

“Hold it…! Why is that the likeliest cause?!”

Celes sighed airily, hands on her hips.

“You weren’t listening, were you? Kirigiri’s death was not instantaneous… The burn marks on her hands were old, and wouldn’t have killed her anyway. She was stabbed in the back, yet that was post-mortem. That leaves the blunt force trauma wounds on her head… and the gunshot wound.”

Mondo rubbed the back of his head, looking down.

“None of us are coroners, but it seems more likely that she bled out. I mean, that seems to drag out death more than beating someone in the head over and over. I mean, if ya beat them hard enough, it seems like it’d be over in a matter of seconds…”

Mukuro could not suppress the twitch this time. If they would have allowed her to examine the bodies, this wouldn’t have been a **problem** … Junko could have slipped anything into that File to throw them off the scent!

“Monokuma.” The soldier deadpanned. “When you say ‘not instantaneous’… Do you mean it took a few seconds, or it was several minutes before she passed?”

Monokuma sighed contently as he patted his belly.

“If I had to say one way or the other, I’d say it was a few minutes at least~…”

Mukuro couldn’t help it. She twitched again.

_‘Why did I think it’d be a good idea to ask **Junko** …?’ _The soldier sighed exasperatedly in her head. Junko lied out of her ass all the time! It was believable, sure – Junko liked to watch her victims suffer. But if she was in a mood to just get it over with…

“Well, that answers that.” Togami deadpanned.

And now everyone else would take that word as law, no matter if that was the truth or not. Great.

“Onto the matter of the weapons…” Celes spoke airily. “Togami, I take it you found those in that locker?”

Smirking, Togami crossed his arms and closed his eyes.

“Indeed I did. That’s where I found the blood-soaked cloth, after all.”

Mondo raised a twitching hand impatiently.

“So what was the blunt object?! From the Monokuma File’s description, it seemed pretty big to just be an iron pipe or some shit!”

“A baseball bat.” Togami dispelled the mystery like popping a balloon. Mukuro twitched violently this time, and not because of the heir’s snooty arrogance. “I don’t even know why Monokuma bothered to make a mystery out of that. From what we’ve come across, no one had access to a baseball bat, let alone a gun. Though if they were items the Mastermind bequeathed to the killer…”

Togami’s narrowed gaze met Mukuro, who glared right back again. Mukuro had nothing to answer for here. In fact, the baseball bat was akin to a smoking gun – Junko loved swinging that thing around and pulverizing things… and people…

… Not like she could confess that detail, Or that they would believe her at this point.

“Setting those items aside for now…” Celes huffed a little in exasperation. “What we must evaluate now is **who** could have committed this murder and the events that came after… Maizono was found in Naegi-kun’s room after the morning announcement. She doesn’t have an alibi before that time.”

Mondo snarled at the gambler.

“Yeah, but she wouldn’t have had time to set up the fake blood and shit! And what about the bomb?!”

“We at least searched for five minutes…” Celes reasoned right back. “With all of us, minus Ikusaba, searching, Maizono could have doubled back to the gym, acquired the bomb, and made her way back to the garden… She could have avoided being seen by the rest of us, with only one person searching each floor. From there, she planted the knives and blood, and stowed the gun, bat, and cloth in the locker… Also consider: Ikusaba’s knife was stashed in Naegi-kun’s room somewhere – she would know exactly where it was, being so close to him. If she wanted to frame Ikusaba, it was doable.”

Celes really got the notion that somebody was framing the soldier. Ikusaba had the weaker alibi between her and Maizono – and if the coliseum was truly between the fifteen of them… Well. That’s not to say she dismissed the possibility of a sixteenth person out of hand; she just didn’t find any solid evidence to prove their existence.

… She was also still a little sore over Maizono’s attempted murder plot.

“No.” Of all people, it was surprisingly Togami who rejected Celes’s theory. “Even if she ran all the way from the fifth floor to the first and back, that eats up more time than she would need to set the scene as we found it. We searched for a little over five minutes… not even ten. Maizono would also need time to wash the chicken blood off of herself, and the fifth floor doesn’t have any bathrooms to do that. Like it or not, we must scratch her off the suspect list.”

A terror began to settle in Mukuro, once more… Icy, sludgy, and suffocating. At this rate, they really were going to vote for her. She opened her mouth to desperately argue a case against Maizono… but her mind was horribly blanking out on her. Her eyes had dilated again, and her hands felt so slimy, slick with sweat as they were…

“C-Could Ikusaba have really done it, though…?” Fujisaki wondered aloud. “W-We found evidence that she **had** tried breaking down the door to the Data Processing Room from the inside…”

As everyone turned to the programmer, Mondo took that opportunity to back him up.

“Yeah! Somebody definitely tried bustin’ down that door… The Monokuma door, too! Hell, that one was even **more** banged up!”

Togami and Celes both seemed to consider this. Eventually, though, Togami shook his head in rejection of the theory.

“No. A pair of banged up doors doesn’t give her an alibi from nighttime until morning.”

“At this point, nothing could.” Celes mused. “Unless Maizono was with her until the morning announcement… But even then, that’s not what Maizono testified.”

Sayaka was quite insistent on her kidnapped Makoto story. And unfortunately, Celes hadn’t perceived any lies when Sayaka was regaling them; there wasn’t even any indication that she’d omitted anything. She’d been so out of it, she didn’t know what time Kirigiri had stopped by Naegi-kun’s room… Going by the Monokuma File, it could’ve been any time before 3:30am. A five and half hour gap from when nighttime started was a **huge** gap…

This smelled so much like a setup…

Mondo gnashed his teeth and raised a fist furiously.

“Why is it so hard to believe Ikusaba could be innocent, too?! Damnit, this is Oogami all over again, you assholes! If Ikusaba didn’t care about Naegi, she wouldn’t have nearly killed Togami like that! We already ruled out Maizono! The rest of us got alibis! There **has** to be someone else!”

A pained silence fell over the group. Many of them… No. All of them – even Togami – felt aggravation and hopelessness over this situation. Kirigiri could have killed Naegi, true – his section in the Monokuma File lacked a time of death. But Kirigiri **couldn’t** have set up the crime scene after the sprinklers had gone off…

In the end, even in that scenario, someone had to have killed Kirigiri. Someone went to a great deal of effort to obfuscate the murder, and the only “plausible” suspects… were two of the people closest to Naegi. Neither of them would stab his body or plant a bomb on him, those parts didn’t even make sense if Maizono and Ikusaba were the only suspects.

None of it added up. And yet none of them had found the existence of a sixteenth person while investigating… Mukuro herself knew, but was forbidden from saying. It was outrageously unfair and unjust. If Kirigiri and Naegi were alive, they would be horrified and furious like no other…

“Enough already…” Everyone turned in shock to the person that had spoken up – Sayaka hadn’t said anything in quite a while. And she was still staring down at the floor emptily, clutching the podium to steady herself. “Ikusaba… didn’t kill either of them… I… I’m the one at fault.”

Togami crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at the idol in disbelief.

“Are you serious? **How** could you have committed all of this? If this is just some attempt to shield Ikusaba, you do realize we will all die, correct?”

Sayaka did not lift her head. Her gaze remained averted.

“There was… another Monokuma. I found it on the fifth floor while ‘searching’… I used… that bomb…”

Togami’s hand curled into a fist in aggravation.

“Except the bomb left in the gym was **gone**! You can’t explain away that nor the fact that you had no time to plant the dojo locker key in Kirigiri’s room. Only Ikusaba had the opportunity for that!”

Mukuro went very still as her gaze fell on the despondent idol. Her heartbeat had practically stopped at the shock of it all. Sayaka was… She was… For her… To everyone else…!

_“I don’t know what will happen at this point… But Ikusaba… I’m… going to put all of our hope in you.”_

…

_‘I can’t let her do this…’_ Mukuro thought painfully to herself, clutching her chest as she clenched her eyes shut in anguish. _‘Junko wants **me** , not her…!’_

_‘Let her.’_ The voice in her head mercilessly countered. _‘She wants to be a sacrificial lamby, we’ll execute her good~!’_

_‘ **Not like this**!’ _Mukuro screamed back mentally.

“I can’t explain the bomb in the gym…” Sayaka conceded, still sounding dismal and defeated. “But I… knew you would double back there to check, so I stopped by Kirigiri’s room and left the key there!”

Togami pointed sternly at the idol and scowled.

“I refuse to accept such a flimsy, desperate excuse! You’ve hardly contributed anything to this trial, and **now** you want to play the sacrificial lamb?!”

Celes gritted her teeth before holding a knuckle over her mouth.

“I really wish you wouldn’t lie so horribly… I **want** you to be the culprit so bad… But after all that crap you just spouted? There is no way I’m voting for you now.”

“M-M-Maizono…!” Fujisaki cried fretfully, wringing his hands in distress.

“The hell, Maizono?!” Mondo raged. “Don’t go putting yourself forward like that! We’ll find the killer! The **real** killer! Even if we gotta vote for some random person…!”

Monokuma laughed uproariously at that.

“Ah-ah-ah!” The bear lectured patronizingly. “I won’t allow it, I won’t allow ittt~! You wanna vote for somebody, it **has** to be a clear name, and you have to have evidence to back it up~!”

“The hell?!” Mondo shouted angrily. “You let us vote for anyone before!”

Monokuma raised a paw, showing off his grinning side deviously.

“Oh, you still can! Anyone that’s here in the academy that you can **prove** is here~! That means any of you fifteen scumbags, no more, no less. Is that really so hard, grease monkey?”

“ **Yes**!” Mondo screamed back furiously.

Celes narrowed her eyes at the monochrome bear.

“You’ve never put limitations on our voting options before… Why now?” The gambler demanded.

Monokuma huffed exasperatedly.

“I’m really getting annoyed with repeating myself, but this academic coliseum is between **you fifteen symbols of Hope**! If you feel that’s too restrictive, I’m sorry, but you’re barking up the wrong bear, sweetheart! Have any of **you** seen a sixteenth student flouncing around? If not, you’re better off conserving whatever little brainpower you got left on deciding between who you **know** is in this academy!”

Togami scowled as he glared at the bear.

“Junko Enoshima was here at one point… You said so yourself. Ikusaba replaced her.”

Monokuma tilted his head playfully.

“Sure, she **was** here… But is she still with us? You found any trace of her still around…?” Monokuma huffed again and sat back down on his throne grumpily. “Just for all these persistent, annoying propositions, I’m going to take that as you guys having nothing left to talk about! Which means we can just skip right ahead to **voting time** ~!”

“V-Voting time?!” Fujisaki exclaimed in alarm.

Sayaka’s eyes were wide open and fearful.

“Y-You can’t…! W-We still haven’t discussed everything yet!”

“That’s not fair. We’ve never had a time limit!” Togami pointed accusingly at the bear.

Mukuro stood there pale and rigid. Was this… was this really it…?

“No more excuses! You dragged your lazy asses through that investigation, so we were short on time!” Monokuma denied all their pleas. “You all remember the rules, right~? If ya don’t vote for someone, you get **punished**! So no flaking out~...”

… This was really happening… God, this was really happening… Reluctantly, they all threw their switches and cast their votes. They didn’t have any other choice. The six of them waited with anxiety and trepidation as Monokuma tallied the votes.

And when the slot machine went off… Three faces of Mukuro were displayed, and it signaled that they were **correct**. For most of them, however, they were confused as hell…

“Fucking **shit** …!” Mondo growled lividly at the remaining survivors. “You guys have **any** brains left?!”

Fujisaki held up a trembling hand.

“I-I didn’t vote for her…!” The programmer wailed, even though the biker wasn’t glaring at him in the first place.

Sayaka hugged herself and stared down at the floor with a hopelessly confused expression.

“I-I don’t understand…! I voted for…!”

Mukuro stared at the idol in shock. Out of self-preservation, she had chosen to vote for Maizono… but Maizono **hadn’t** voted for her?!

Monokuma laughed at everyone’s evident confusion, clutching his belly.

“Well played, **scumbags**! I almost thought that was staged, but wowzers! First time we ever had a **three-way tie** like that~! I almost wanna kill you all ‘cause of that~…”

Togami’s glasses became askew as he stared at the bear in shock.

“A **tie**?! How in the world…?!”

Monokuma straightened up and proceeded to explain.

“Oowada and Fujisaki voted for Kirigiri. You and Ludenberg voted for Ikusaba, Togami. And Maizono and Ikusaba… voted for Maizono!” The bear laughed again gleefully. “Aw, man! Indecisiveness all across the board… But it’s cool~! At least two of ya voted correctly!”

Celes arched an eyebrow.

“Only two…? How could that be considered a majority?”

Monokuma tilted his head curiously at the gambler.

“Hmm…? Are you saying you **want** to be executed ‘cause the majority voted wrong?” Monokuma rubbed the back of his head bashfully. “It’s fine, it’s cool! A three-way tie is nothin’ to sniff at, and I gotta respect you guys for sticking to your guns! So as thanks for showing me something so awesome… I’ll execute the blackened since a third of you got it **right**!”

Mukuro went very still as she narrowed her eyes at the bear.

“You **wanted** to execute me to begin with… This whole trial was wrong from start to finish…!”

Monokuma raised his paws threateningly.

“There’s **noooooothing** wrong with it~!” The bear showed off his grinning side deviously. “It’s the same as always! Your same ol’ everyday Class Trial! So, as always, let’s get crackin’! It’s time for another super exciting, heart-pounding punishment!”

Mukuro trembled with bottled up rage and bowed her head.

“No… I’ve **had** it…! **You’re not pushing me around anymore**! **Not after you killed Naegi-kun**!” Having said that, Mukuro rushed the bear with murderous intent. Just as she was within reach…

“Hmm…? Assaulting the Headmaster…? You know that also kills you stone dead with punishment, riiight…?” The bear spoke in a teasing, whimsical tone even as Ikusaba hoisted him up threateningly.

“ **I don’t care** …” Mukuro growled darkly. “You already gave me a punishment worse than death!!!”

Monokuma tilted his head again innocently.

“Ikusaba…? Ah, I know you’re pretty confident in your own skills, enough that you’d tank an explosion… But do ya think your pal Maizono is made of the same stern stuff?”

Mukuro froze at the threat. She slowly swiveled her head to look back at everyone else… and saw another Monokuma standing next to the idol, patting his belly smugly.

“A two-fer’s not so bad, right?!” The other Monokuma taunted the soldier. “Naughty rule-breakers must be punished with extreme prejudice! Papa spaaank~!”

Mukuro stared with a maelstrom of emotions dancing and clashing within herself. The voice spoke up in utter disbelief.

_‘Oh, you can’t be **serious**! Junko’s giving us what we always wanted – right before she kicks the bucket herself! Maybe I’ll send her a gift basket anyway…’ _

Mukuro heard what the voice was saying… could even sympathize on so many levels… But she just couldn’t do it. Not after Maizono had **voted for herself**. Maizono had stayed true to her word and placed her trust in Ikusaba… Even after learning about Maizono’s sin, the idol still found ways to keep her grounded in sanity and sentiment…

… And the soldier resented her for every second of it.

_‘Not like this…_ ’ Mukuro’s grip on Monokuma slackened, and he jumped down to the floor with high energy.

“I-Ikusaba?!” Sayaka cried out distressfully. Even though she was essentially a hostage… it really hit home that Mukuro was surrendering to the unjust punishment. That wasn’t right!

Mukuro had no words for the deeply troubled idol.

“Phew! I thought you were gonna pulverize me there, but I made it out alive! What up?!” The bear mocked Mukuro before sidling over to the big red button as it appeared. “Welp, let’s get this ball rollin’! **Iiit’s punishment time**!!!”

And just like that, without any hesitation or remorse, Monokuma swung his gavel down on the button…

~*~

When she was yanked to the execution grounds, Mukuro found herself in a fake classroom, seated at one of the desks. It was on a conveyer belt that led to a giant mechanism in the back… Mukuro knew this contraption well. She’d witnessed Souda Kazuichi construct it.

An execution block that crushed you like a bug… **Of course** Junko would reserve this one for her.

Naturally, Mukuro’s desk was facing away from the block that threateningly, thunderously continued to slam down in the background as she was moved closer and closer to it. In front of her, Monokuma was wearing glasses and “teaching” something scrawled on a blackboard.

Mukuro wasn’t paying too much attention… too busy dealing with that persistent voice screeching in her head.

_‘You’re **really** doing this?! **Are you serious**?! After everything we’ve suffered, you’re **really** , **truly** throwing our vengeance away over that bitch Maizono?!’_

Mukuro closed her eyes in defeat as she came within a few feet of the execution block. She knew she could break out of the restraints that Junko had forced on her… She could escape.

But not at the cost of Maizono’s life.

Yes, she hated the idol for stirring up such unnecessary compassion within her… After stealing Naegi-kun for herself, rubbing it in Mukuro’s face for **two years** , and then almost tossing Naegi-kun away like a disposable pawn… Yes. Mukuro well and truly hated her. She should be **allowed** to hate her. That perfect, flawless, **caring** idol…

… In the end, it wasn’t Sayaka that she hated. It was herself… Because Mukuro wasted those final two years of her life. Instead of making friends with the girl she saw as a rival, Mukuro stewed in jealousy, pain, and misery. Mukuro clung to a sister that never even cared about her. All Junko wanted was Despair for herself and the world…

And now Naegi-kun was dead, and she would soon be joining him.

Mukuro reopened her eyes just as she was about to pass under the execution block. Though she had the skeleton key, it wouldn’t help her out of this jam. She was finished.

Unbeknownst to the soldier, on the screen above the block, Monokuma’s face disappeared as it was replaced with Fujisaki’s… or rather, Alter Ego’s. But that was fine… because she could tell something was amiss moments later when the execution block stopped moving, even while she was directly under it. After several painfully tense moments passed, the floor opened up underneath her, as the mechanism was otherwise operating as it should – only the block was stopped.

Monokuma leaned over his podium, seething, as he watched Mukuro fall down the garbage chute. She fell, and fell, and fell…

~*~

“Whoa… Whoa, whoa, whoa…” Monokuma mumbled to himself, dumbfounded. “Wh-What was that?! What the hell was **that**?!”

The remaining survivors weren’t faring much better. Mondo, mouth agape and arms loosely at his sides, stared with wide eyes.

“H-Hey… wasn’t that…?”

“Alter Ego…!” Fujisaki cried out, tears brimming in his eyes as he smiled in relief. So he wasn’t completely dead, after all…

“There’s no doubt…” Togami frowned thoughtfully, arms crossed.

“Alter Ego?! No way… did he plant a virus? It had to have been when he broke into the school’s network... Damnit… That pile of scrap!” Monokuma raged, raising a claw threateningly.

Celes twirled a lock of hair around her finger casually.

“It seems like you’ve had a wrench thrown into your plans… An entire toolbox, more like…” And despite everything they’d gone through, the gambler couldn’t help mustering a small triumphant smirk.

“What was that?” Monokuma growled.

Togami stood tall as he rounded on the bear.

“She’s saying you didn’t give us nearly enough credit… You miscalculated. Things haven’t been going your way for quite some time, so you tried to rectify that… A pity it didn’t work out.”

Monokuma scoffed in irritation.

“What are you gettin’ so high and mighty over? You think you’ve won?! You haven’t done any damage… See? Not even a scratch – full HP… And that’s the end for that stupid virus… Same for Ikusaba, too. So I didn’t get to Ikusaba pancakes to go with my Ishimaru jam, but it’s not like she’ll be back… She’s just gonna wither away underground with all the trash! In a way, that’s the worst punishment!” The bear belted out a cackle, clutching his belly. “Upu… Upupupu… But that’s not enough… I still haven’t had enough… I still have gobs of Despair for you guys! I still have oodles of Despair for **the whole world** … Upu… Upupupupupupupupu…”

Laughing harder, Monokuma vanished as he always did. Left alone, the five remaining students shared looks of uncertainty with one another. Sayaka never felt more alone, weathering Celes and Byakuya’s suspicious glares. Mondo was still pissed at Byakuya. The heir himself felt a trickle of guilt enter his heart for his sharp skepticism and pessimism – there was clearly something up with this trial – yet he could not bring himself to fully trust any of the remaining survivors; even Chihiro could try to pull something, for all he knew. Celes felt wearier, and more bitter, than ever – Sayaka was no better than her when it came to having the heart for killing, Mondo still distrusted her, and Byakuya wasn’t going to stop his forked tongue. And Chihiro still felt so powerless, even when Alter Ego was still clearly alive out there… He didn’t buy it for a second that the program was exterminated. Alter Ego escaped off the network in some form, he was sure of it.

They’d all been willing to work together after Oogami’s trial, but now… Now they couldn’t be more distant from each other if they tried.

~*~

_It had been a desperate last-ditch ploy… But somehow, Mukuro had done it. Her classmates had been obstinate, and asked a lot of questions, but had listened to her in the end… Rather than build a shelter like the Headmaster intended, they went out into the world and… hid. They had little choice, with Junko and her Ultimate Despairs running their apocalyptic world._

_Mukuro had personally helped in relocating Naegi-kun, Maizono, and their families. She constantly had them on the move in Europe, but eventually they chose a place to settle down and – at her pleading – never told her specifically where._

_… She should have known it wasn’t going to be that simple._

_Sayaka ambled over to Makoto’s house, one fall day. It’d been months since the world had gone to hell, but somehow they made a life or some semblance of it. It wasn’t a peaceful life like they wanted, constantly having to look over their shoulders, but at least they had one._

_Sayaka gasped as the front door’s handle jiggled even before she made to knock. Makoto and her had agreed that she would be the one to come over today; if they were both out and about, there was more of a chance of them being recognized and that news somehow getting out to Ultimate Despair, who were looking for Class 78 of Hope’s Peak… Did Makoto’s parents or sister need something…?_

_The door creaked open, and Sayaka took a wary step back. As she did, a figure stepped out into view… It was clearly a young woman, clad in a dark trench coat and hat that were as dark as her hair, hands stuffed into her pockets… Half the woman’s face was obscured by the darkness of the inside of the house, but that small coy grin was what really unsettled the former idol. It took Sayaka a moment to recognize the familiar face… But eventually she placed it._

_It was Mukuro._

_“I-Ikusaba…!” The bluenette gave a strangled cry in horror. She dropped the bag of groceries that she’d brought for the Naegi’s. “B-But… But you said we couldn’t be in touch anymore! It was too risky!”_

_The Ultimate Soldier casually strode past Sayaka, not even acknowledging her with a greeting. Just kept grinning and walking down the steps from the front porch. Worriedly, Sayaka rushed into the house that was left open._

_“Makoto?!” Sayaka proceeded to scream in anguish at the horrors she found inside._

_Still outside, Mukuro picked an apple off the ground from the bag Sayaka had dropped. She polished the apple on her coat before casually taking a bite and continuing to leave without saying a word…_

~*~

The soldier awoke with a start from the latest nightmare, having passed out upon her brutal crash landing into the garbage dump. That… was not the kind of dream she wanted to be having. But considering everything that had happened… she might as well have been responsible for Makoto’s death.

It was all her fault. If she’d been more attentive… If she hadn’t been so blind – both with her burning desire to see Junko dead, as well as the envy and resentment she held toward Maizono… Hell, if she hadn’t been so blindly loyal to Junko in the first place…

She could have been happy. **They** could have been happy… Even if it was just as friends. Makoto accomplished more than he realized, filling her life with love and purpose more than Junko, her own flesh and blood, did. And he didn’t ask for anything in return… He never did. Makoto had just felt honored to be lucky enough to be among such an amazing class – it wasn’t out of subservience that he wanted to be helpful for them; he genuinely cared about them as people.

Even her… a girl baptized in both blood and Despair. And now he was gone because of that very same useless, stupid girl.

…

_‘Ehehehe… I guess we’re not so dead after all! So, uh… still pals?’_

Mukuro slowly crawled out of the wreckage with a blank expression, ignoring the voice in her head as it chuckled nervously. With all of that said, there were some things that just didn’t click in this incident. Mukuro could accept that information was kept from her throughout the investigation; but some things just never, ever got brought up… Like where Kirigiri’s clothes had vanished to. She saw what Kirigiri had looked like in the Monokuma File – Junko had dressed her up in that suit and mask to make her appear as the Mastermind. And probably because of that, no one stopped to ask what Kirigiri’s talent was, in the end. No one had come across Kirigiri’s clothes during the investigation; if they were in that dojo locker, Togami certainly never brought them up.

It seemed like a trivial point, but clothes could contain vital clues Mukuro had discovered in her tenure as a soldier… But there was still more. They had barely touched on it in the trial, but the decision to blow up Naegi-kun’s corpse… Why had Junko done that? She was known for being excessive and brutal and mad, yet far too often Junko’s decisions had some deeper meaning behind them. Blowing up Naegi-kun’s corpse filled them with Despair, true, but wouldn’t there have been a deeper Despair to be had if they could look upon his face and see, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was dead?

… And if you could believe it, there was **still** more. That scrap of burnt… “rubber”, if Mukuro could call it that. She still didn’t know what that had been, prior to the explosion. It hadn’t even been located near Naegi-kun’s hands. Oowada had located it closer to Naegi-kun’s he-

…

And those **measurements** … Those damn **measurements** were still nagging at her!

_‘Oh, you’re not still digging around for some of that crazy Hope dope, are you?! It’s over, Muku! Naegi’s dead, Junko’s probably shoring up her defenses, and you and your reputation literally can’t get any lower! There’s nothing left to fight for!’_ Mukuro ignored the voice completely as she moved over to the stairs and withdrew her e-handbook while sitting down. Clearly, this unnerved the voice further. _‘H-Hey…! There’s no need to give me the cold shoulder! Why not unload yourself for once?! I’ll listen, really!’_

But Mukuro still paid it no heed. She clutched the e-handbook tighter as she scrolled to the student profiles and narrowed her gaze furiously.

_‘The victim was 5’4”, weighed 104 lbs., and their chest was 31 in…’_ The soldier growled out loud in frustration as she located his profile. _‘I **knew** something about those measurements was off…!’_

Oh, they were close. Mukuro would give her sister that. She’d been fooled the entire investigation – the entire **trial** … Junko was going to execute her while she was in the dark. While she was grieving.

After confirming her hunch, Mukuro then idly scrolled through the other profiles until she found the classmate that matched the Monokuma File’s measurements.

…

~*~

_Mukuro blinked as she heard the yakuza’s laugh coming from the Data Processing Room. She knew Ultimate Despair was in the middle of renovating the academy before it was turned into a shelter. There were things that needed to be in place, after all… She saw Souda and Nidai lugging a Gatling gun to the swimming pool’s entrance, as just one example. Tsumiki was taking care to ensure the infirmary and the chem lab were fully stocked. And Teruteru was also making sure there was plenty of food supplies for the weeks, possibly months, ahead._

_“Damn, Enoshima-san! You really **do** think of everything!” Fuyuhiko’s amused tone flitted through the open doorway, and Mukuro took that time to poke her head into the room cautiously. In doing so, she caught a glimpse of Fuyuhiko, Mahiru, and the Imposter all standing around her sister – they seemed to be thrilled like they always had been after Nanami-senpai’s death._

_Despair really changes people…_

_“Uh, doy?! You musta been hanging out with your slave too long if ya can’t remember who’s the **god** of this fuckin’ world!!!” Junko cackled maniacally, flashing gangster signs and lolling out her tongue._

_Fuyuhiko seemed to hesitate at that insult before his gut burst in another fit of laughter._

_“You’re so right, Enoshima-san…! Peko couldn’t find her way out of a wet paper bag!” He wheezed from laughing so hard. And though Mukuro couldn’t see his face from this angle, she was certain his eyes were swirling._

_Junko snickered._

_“She’s just a tool~! A smelly, rusty tool~!”_

_Mahiru scowled, raising an arm and sighing exasperatedly._

_“I wish you guys would give Pekoyama-san the credit she deserves… She works harder than most of you meatheads!”_

_“Don’t ruin this for me.” Junko and Fuyuhiko both deadpanned at the photographer, who only sighed in disappointment._

_The Imposter craned his head to the doorway, as if sensing the soldier’s presence._

_“Ikusaba-san.” He casually announced, alerting everyone else to her presence. Flushing with embarrassment, Mukuro scurried into the room like she’d just gotten there._

_“H-Hi, Junko!”_

_Instead of giving her a snide greeting, Junko exchanged looks with the others in the room before nudging her head toward the door forcefully._

_“Alright, you lazy bastards! Chop-chop! The apocalypse doesn’t create itself!” The fashionista made a shooing motion with her hand, and the three Despairs exchanged looks with one another before nodding slowly._

_“You got it, Enoshima-san! I promise… We’ll make your vision a **reality**!” Fuyuhiko’s tone became more businesslike as he tipped his fedora and adjusted his tie. “Let’s go, boys.”_

_Mahiru’s nose wrinkled at being lumped in with the Imposter, but made to follow all the same. The Imposter was the first one out, followed by Mahiru, and finally Fuyuhiko. Mukuro watched the vacant doorway for a few moments before turning her attention back to her sister._

_“What was that about, Junko?” Kuzuryu and Koizumi the soldier could understand – the Ultimate Photographer was tasked to make sure the cameras would all remain functional while the Killing Game was going on, while the yakuza was an ‘upper management’ type like Nevermind and Junko, who oversaw the propagation of Despair and was personally seen as Junko’s regent. … Calling him “King” or somesuch would have been far too presumptuous. As if he was anywhere close to being Junko’s equal…_

_But the Imposter…_

_Junko just flashed her perfect Cheshire grin. Mukuro didn’t miss how she deposited some objects into her pocket… She almost mistook them for sacks with the objects bunched up like that, but the material didn’t look quite right._

_“Oh, nothing~…” Junko declared in a singsong voice. “Just another contingency for later… Depending on how things work out, I might not even hafta use ‘em. But it pays to be prepared~…”_

_While most would have been more on-guard with Junko using a foreboding tone like that, Mukuro herself relaxed and smiled at the fashionista’s mischief. Everything must have been going well if Junko was this happy…_

_… But still… She swore one of those objects had familiar brown spikes poking out between Junko’s fingers. Masks? Just what **was** Junko planning to use those for…?_

~*~

Mukuro’s grip on the e-handbook tightened. Her teeth grinded together as another memory burst unbidden into mind.

~*~

_“Makoto Naegi… the proverbial fly in the ointment…” Junko muttered, watching the luckster and idol wander off after Junko’s failed attempt on his life._

_Mukuro removed the wrench from the pillar they were hiding behind._

_“What are you talking about? He’s a loser.” The soldier stated emotionlessly. Anything to delay Junko’s… interest… in the luckster._

_If Junko became interested in you, it was all over. Just ask Ryota Mitarai and Yasuke Matsuda._

_“Perhaps, but he has luck… And not the way Komaeda does, either! It comes and goes at random, very difficult to get a lock on…”_

_Mukuro swallowed the tiniest amount at that analysis. She ensured to keep any emotion out of her movements as the two of them stopped watching Naegi-kun and Maizono._

_“… Are you gonna kill him?”_

_The million dollar question. If Junko said yes, Mukuro would have to obey… It would hurt, but… she couldn’t abandon Junko again._

_But could she really kill Naegi-kun with her own two hands…?_

_“Mmmmmmmmmmm…” Junko exaggeratedly prolonged her humming as she seemed to weigh the pros and cons in her head. She then clenched her fists, looking up at the ceiling with a determined gaze. “Yeah, no! Even the thought of that loser ruining my perfect plan? Now **that’s** the kind of Despair I live for!”_

_As Junko grinned coyly, returning to look at the luckster and idol, Mukuro closed her eyes and breathed a soundless sigh of relief. Looked like she dodged the bullet on that issue once again…_

_Deciding between Junko and Naegi-kun… No matter how awful the future got, Mukuro honestly hoped with every fiber of her being she would never have to choose between them… It was just too impossible._

~*~

_‘Too impossible, and yet they seemed to choose for me…’_ Mukuro thought darkly with a stormy expression.

Kyoko’s measurements had all been correct. The other body in the garden was 5’4”, weighed 104 lbs., and the chest was 31 in…

Makoto Naegi was 5’3”, weighed 115 lbs., and his chest was 29 in…

Junko wouldn’t make an amateur mistake like this when creating the Monokuma File. She didn’t pull these measurements out of her ass. Junko was brutally honest with the Monokuma File as always – that body **was** suffocated to death.

Because that’s how Touko Fukawa died.

Mukuro rose to her feet mechanically. She clutched the skeleton key in one hand and clenched her fist around it, narrowing her eyes.

_‘Now, now, let’s not get our hopes up **too** high…!’ _The voice in her head tried reeling her in again. _‘Junko-chan’s just petty enough to raise your hopes up one last time before dashing it to pieces! **You know her**!’_

Mukuro turned sharply on her heel and ran up the stairs to the door leading out of the garbage area. She did know Junko. All too well.

Junko changed her mind all the time. She was as fickle as Hanamura-senpai was with his perverse sexuality. If Junko deigned Naegi-kun too large of a threat, she’d eliminate him.

But that’s not what Junko did.

Junko never changes her mind when it comes to the important things. And for Junko, Despair was obviously at the top of that… Junko wouldn’t throw away ‘a Despair she lived for’ when it was getting inconvenient for her. **Junko would spur it on**.

The lock clicked as Mukuro opened the door, and wasting no time, she scaled the impossibly high ladder at a rigorous speed.

Faking one of the deaths of the participants? Having her ruse found out? **That** was the kind of Despair Junko lived for… Oh, Junko probably planned for the others to kill one another off without Naegi-kun around, but the biggest payoff for her would be **if that plan failed**.

Mukuro slammed open the hatch once she reached the top. A hatch that Naegi-kun had left unlocked… The soldier clutched the key in her hand once again after climbing out, and offered up a silent thanks to the luckster. She might’ve attributed this to his luck, in the past, but this was as much of a gesture of good faith as it was a stroke of luck…

And Mukuro was all too happy to return the favor.

~*~

Groggily, he woke up. The boy found himself sprawled over a couch in a room he didn’t recognize. From what he could discern in the dark, it looked to be a very formal room… with a professional-looking desk and cabinets on either side of the room. Some had trophies, and others had files. There was another couch across from him and a coffee table between them.

There was something else, as well. Aside from the fact he was missing his hoodie, which he was rather depressed by, there was a Monokuma sitting on that couch across from him. The bear’s red eye seemed to gleam as it suddenly moved the tiniest amount.

“Ah, so you’re finally awake! Way to keep a bear waiting, Naegi-kun! How rude!” Monokuma leaned back lazily as he stared at the luckster.

“Wh-Where the hell am I?!” Makoto asked, looking around with wide, panicked eyes. He then glared at Monokuma. “And what have you done with everyone else?”

Monokuma waved him off lazily.

“Meh… Don’t sweat the small stuff! They’re alive… for now. Well, most of them.” The bear huffed exasperatedly. “Kirigiri kicked the bucket, and Ikusaba was supposed to join her, but I suppose this is your **luck** screwing me over again… *siiigh* I tell you, Naegi-kun, I put up with a lot of shit from you. Your Hope-doped speeches, your misplaced sense of ‘justice’, that tacky luck that I **just**. **Can’t**. **Get**. **A**. **Lock on**! Always strikes at the most important parts… You need to sit in the corner a while and think about what you’ve done!”

Makoto paled, having tuned out most of that rant. He trembled in fear and horror.

“K-Kirigiri’s dead?!” He stood up ramrod straight and shouted at the bear in alarm. “And Ikusaba?! You tried to kill her?!”

Monokuma raised a claw threateningly and remained sitting.

“Geez, you’re noisy! Ever think I might be nursing a hangover from drinking too much after the headaches you put me through?!” Monokuma humphed. “Kirigiri’s dead, get over yourself! Ikusaba killed her in cold blood, and I was gonna execute her ass, but that **loser** planted a stupid virus and gummed up the works… To top it off, **I still don’t know who has that blasted key**! You **had** to give it to one of your buddy-buddies, didn’t you? Y’see, Naegi-kun, this. This is why we can’t have nice things.”

Makoto was still barely keeping up, but he was latching onto pieces of information. Ikusaba had killed Kirigiri…? No. That wasn’t possible. Mukuro… she didn’t even have a motive! Monokuma hadn’t given one, this time!

But also…

“L-Loser…?” Makoto repeated, blinking owlishly. It took him a few moments to register who the bear was talking about. “Y-You mean Fujisaki?! Or… no… Alter Ego…!”

Monokuma growled lowly at how **happy** the luckster was over that.

“You just keep rubbing salt in the wound with that dopey face of yours…” Monokuma huffed again. “Well, laugh it up! ‘Cause that virus is gone, I wiped it clean! Zero damage, full HP!”

Makoto grinned, despite his situation.

“But Alter Ego **saved** Ikusaba! You said it yourself!”

Monokuma raised his paws threateningly.

“Just a glitch, nothing more! She’s trapped in a garbage dump ‘til she starves to death, so that’s just as fitting, y’know?! A mangy, rabid mutt too stupid to just **die** when she’s supposed to!” The bear showed off his grinning side deviously. “Besides~… Who cares about that dog? You should really be focusing on what comes next for your pals… Without you, I think they might feel a ‘little bit’ on edge around each other~…”

Makoto paled again at the implications. He knew Monokuma didn’t make idle threats.

“Th-Th-That’s right… I-I need to go…!” The luckster moved to run for the exit, but Monokuma intercepted his path with incredible speed despite how he’d been lazily sitting just a second before.

“Now, now, now… I don’t think you’ve fully grasped the situation, **Na-e-gi-kun**! You’re in **detention** until further notice! But don’t worry~! I’ll give you a front row seat to how it all ends. There’s only five of ‘em left, y’know? And if Maizono gets executed, you can even see her final show up close, **live** … I’ll allow it this once!”

Makoto trembled in both fear and anger. Monokuma was just going to hole him up in here until his friends killed each other?! Was the Mastermind really that desperate?

“S-S-Screw you…!” The luckster shouted in determination, pointing at the bear in resentment. “You’ve been having us kill each other all this time, and now that we’re finally refusing to play your game, you’re breaking your own rules! I **won’t** just stand by and let you have your way! You can be **damn sure** about that…!”

Monokuma yawned at Makoto’s passionate speech.

“I think you would be a tad more believable if you could actually land a **hit** on me… Alas, you’re so **slooow**!”

“Naegi-kun might be… but I’m not…” A voice darkly came from the other side of the doors that Makoto had tried to escape from. Both the luckster and bear turned towards them, and Monokuma panicked as Mukuro kicked them open after unlocking the door with the key.

“Gak…! Caught in a scandalous love affair with sweet little Naegi-kun! Whatever shall I do?!” Monokuma eccentrically yelled before a beeping noise started to go off.

Mukuro wasted no time. That trophy sword she took from Naegi-kun’s room was pretty dull for a blade, but Mukuro had sharpened it as much as she could in the short time she had on the journey up here, and she had the strength to make up for the rest of it – she stabbed through Monokuma and smashed the bomb unit within, defusing the explosive. The soldier panted heavily once it was all over, and hurled the skewered Monokuma away like the hideous garbage mannequin that it was.

For a long, agonizing, painful moment she and Makoto just stared at one another in disbelief, shock, and so much palpable relief…

_‘Now let’s not fall out here, Muku…! I might’ve told you a teeny, **tiny** little lie! But c’mooon! You woke up to your true feelings~! You want Junko dead, **I** want Junko dead! Is it really so awful I wanted us focused? Our head **not** in the fluffy, pink clouds? You should be proud~!’_

That other part of herself had been **aware** of Junko’s ruse? Or at least had suspected it?

… Mukuro didn’t even care anymore.

Makoto was standing **right there**. Safe. Lacking his hoodie, just in pants and a white shirt, and for all appearances looking like he’d just rolled out of bed, but **safe**.

**Makoto Naegi was alive**.

Mukuro paid heed to her instincts once more and charged him, tackling him in a bear hug. The soldier wasn’t one for overt signs of affection like this, but she wasn’t going to hesitate anymore. She hesitated in the past, and she had **lost** him. She hesitated to choose him, time and time again, and he ended up in this horrible situation because of her indecisiveness...

No more. She was going to hold him and never let go.

She had found her **Hope** again…

“I-Ikusaba…?” The luckster asked, a little flustered but also concerned as he felt her crying into the crook of his neck.

“Y-You’re here…” The soldier sniffled, hugging him all the tighter. “You’re really… here…”

Not completely understanding, Makoto smiled softly and returned her hug comfortingly.

“Yeah. And I’m not going anywhere.” He vowed to the soldier quietly, rubbing her back. 

Mukuro sobbed at those words. How long had she waited to hear those words…? Not just from Naegi, but from... **anyone**... Not even Junko dared to utter such a tender, heartfelt promise. 

No, that wasn't quite right... Naegi **had** been offering that unwavering Hope from the beginning. She just held him at arms' length because she couldn't abandon Junko. ... No, not even **that**. She'd just used Junko as an excuse. Of course she felt bad about abandoning her family to go and join Fenrir... But when you get down to it, her life as a mercenary changed her. Made her closed off to society. In her world, trusting people was how you got a knife lodged in your back. Mukuro lived her high school life in constant fear without realizing. Junko's sultry whispers of Despair, carnage, and ending the world... Little by little, Mukuro found herself attracted to such dangerous ideas. 

The world can't hurt you if it's dead. Plus, Junko wanted it, so it couldn't have been the worst thing ever... That's what Mukuro believed for so long.

And all along, she could have had everything she ever wanted...

What a foolish girl she'd been...

_'Eww... Could you at least make it raunchy? I mean, you got Headmaster's desk **right there**! No, wait... Naegi's not the dominant type... drats.' _The voice huffed in the back of her mind in frustration. _'Why couldn't we pick a guy that was at least omnivore? Ughhh... At least lemme disembowel Monokuma while you two suck face! Hey! Are you listening to me?!'_

At this point, Mukuro didn’t care what it took. She was going to get Makoto out of this hellhole… And for his sake, she’d bring their classmates along with them.

Whatever it took… she would make it happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, uh... Ehehe... I have diabetes from writing that... And it's only going to get worse from here... Houston, we may have a problem... lol
> 
> If any of you have whiplash, well, I did my job. XD Naegi was alive. The clues were there, lurking in the background, and I'll admit some of you guys DID catch SOME hints. Only two commented on the biggest hint, though. It was subtle enough because the measurements were so close to Naegi's, but if you read his student profile from in-game, you would have caught on that "close" only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, and something was fishy. XD But they weren't random measurements, either. The next clue was in the lack of time of death and the fact "suffocation" was in there. The trick here, I suppose, is remembering what kind of deaths you'd seen so far in this AU. Yeah, most of the bodies were rendered unusable, and didn't match Naegi's body type and figure, but Fukawa was SO CLOSE to Naegi, and I just thought it was beautiful that she'd been the first one to die, too. What's more, because they identified Makoto, they didn't really scrutinize the body too much because most of them felt quite overwhelmed when they attempted to. Togami probably would have looked it over better, but he was... preoccupied... And you already know they stopped Ikusaba from checking it out and making a Fujisaki-level discovery with the corpse.:3 
> 
> ... Now, the bit with the Naegi mask. I hope you all don't hate me for bringing in something that "wasn't there" in the original game. I know, it was a bit mean, and probably a little bit unfair, but I thought about how Junko had the Ultimate Imposter on her "dream team" of Despair's, and I just thought... it was such a golden opportunity to make use of his talent, even though he didn't appear in the Killing Game. Junko would absolutely use people's talents like that, we've seen precedents. :3 And it's not like Naegi was the only one she requested a mask for... It just so happened to be the one she ended up using because he was becoming a real thorn in her side. 
> 
> And I hope Junko keeping him alive, but squirreled away, was believable enough. Because as much as canon implied Junko was more than willing to kill Makoto by Chapter 5, it always bugged me she succumbed to cheating her own game even though over half of her class was wiped out. Yeah, Makoto was making it hard for the Despair to take root in the other survivors' hearts, but Junko had to have contingencies and other motives she could have used... Hagakure, Togami, hell, even Fukawa/Genocider was still left. Gunning after Makoto just made her seem impatient. And like she was set on "Easy Mode". ... So I did everyone a favor and switched the difficulty settings. Because yes, kidnapping him comes with its own problems, but that's kind of the whole point. Junko leaves a margin of possible failure just to get a taste of that Despair. Junko just didn't make it easy to unravel her plot, because why should she? Their fault for being a bunch of maroons. XD 
> 
> So that's my take on the subject. If any of you guys feel it's still a bit of a stretch, I wouldn't mind hearing your thoughts. This *is* the end of the game, after all; I wanna make it satisfying as much as I can. :3
> 
> Just like I did at the end of last Chapter, I'll reveal the title for Chapter 6 here:
> 
> The Ultimate Unluckster, or: How I Learned to Stop Despairing and Embrace the End


	27. Chapter 6, Part 1: The Ultimate Unluckster, or: How I Learned to Stop Despairing and Embrace the End

_“Cheers!” Everyone at the table tipped and clinked their glasses together in celebration._

_From his spot at the head of the table, Jin Kirigiri smiled softly. His daughter’s class was certainly a lively one…_

_“Alright, settle down now…” Jin spoke up after a few moments. Leon grinned impishly at the man._

_“Hey, can you blame us?! A whole **month** without any bombs going off outside! Or, y’know, any kind of attack!”_

_From his corner of the table, Togami had his arms crossed as he frowned._

_“That we **know** of…” The heir pointed out shrewdly. “Hope’s Peak is still an eyesore to the terrorists out there. Just because there’s a lull for now, doesn’t mean we’ll be left alone forever.”_

_Celes placed her hands on her hips._

_“The outsides of the academy must be ghastly by now… I do hope order is restored soon. This would make for a horrendous castle…”_

_Mondo snorted in disbelief._

_“You shitting me? This ain’t gonna simmer down anytime soon. I’ve raised a lot of hell in my time… And this blows my whole time as a biker outta the water! I know some of my boys got hard heads, but damn these people got some real shit-for-brains…”_

_“LANGUAGE, BRO!” Ishimaru hollered. He then held a knuckle over his mouth anxiously. “You raise a good point, though… The rioters out there **are** fools, but they are also resourceful, it seems… We may be here for a while yet.”_

_“Our time will come.” Sakura intoned calmly. “We can rely on the Future Foundation to hold the line…”_

_Hagakure laughed uproariously._

_“I already predicted we’re going to make it out of this! No need to stress over it, you’ll just puke ectoplasm for worrying so much, dudes!”_

_“A-And we already **told** you, i-idiot…! No one wants **y-you** predicting **our** future…!” Fukawa hissed, pointing accusingly at the fortuneteller._

_Yamada hung his head._

_“Indeed… Our chances of survival would be up 67-80% if Master Yasuhiro Hagakure would kindly shut up…”_

_Junko snorted._

_“Hiro shutting up? But if he did that, his head would explode from all the hot air~!”_

_Celes deadpanned at the fashionista._

_“What a **tragedy** that would be…”_

_Makoto chuckled sheepishly at everyone’s antics._

_“Uh, guys…?”_

_This time, Jin stood up to gather their attention. Once they’d quieted down, he launched into what he wanted to say._

_“First off, I wanted to thank you all for being so patient. A month without any activity immediately around the academy is indeed an achievement to celebrate. We didn’t want to keep you sealed in here for as long as we have, but as things stand, it’s still too much of a risk to leave these academy grounds. The riots have spread from the cities and even reached into the more quiet suburbs and towns – it’s become a global catastrophe, as we feared it would. But as Oogami stated, the Future Foundation is working tirelessly to keep the peace and restore order. It’s been slow-going, I’m afraid.”_

_Asahina frowned a little in concern._

_“Wh-What about my brother…? Has anyone found him yet?” As she said this, a few others murmured similar worries. Over the months they’d been sealed in the academy, they gradually stopped hearing from their loved ones. Not even the most famous of them were spared… Just earlier this week, Sayaka hadn’t been able to get in touch with anyone in her idol group. And that made Asahina all the more anxious about her brother._

_Jin met the swimmer’s eyes gravely._

_“I’m afraid there has been no word as of yet, Asahina… But the Foundation is working hard to find him, I promise you.” The Headmaster calmly closed his eyes as Sakura placed a hand on Asahina’s shoulder consolingly. He then looked at each of them in turn. “That goes for all of you. We don’t have answers yet, but we will find everyone.”_

_“Can’t you have Kirigiri do her thing over video call or somethin’?!” Leon griped, running a hand through his hair exasperatedly._

_The detective shook her head at the suggestion._

_“There’s only so much I can deduce from over a video screen…” The lilac-haired girl cupped her chin. “In addition, most of those crime scenes are contaminated by now… I work best when a scene is fresh. That’s not to say I haven’t tried… But some scenes are even months old. Scents and trails have gone cold.”_

_Dinner was a much more dismal affair after that. No one was in the mood to celebrate, too caught up in their own worlds. Gradually, they trickled out of the dining hall when they were done. Jin was the last to leave, watching Makoto guide an anxious-looking Sayaka back to her room as she clung to him like a lifeline._

_The Headmaster took a deep breath as he locked down the dining hall for the night. Perhaps he should have let them celebrate, rather than dwell on the negatives… As the dark-haired man turned around to return to his own room, he was met by the grinning face of Junko Enoshima._

_“Kirigiri-sensei, good sir~! Could I have a word?”_

_The man blinked slowly at the request._

_“Certainly.” When the fashionista didn’t go on, he arched an eyebrow. “Did… you want some privacy?”_

_Junko bobbed her head up and down eccentrically, covering her grinning mouth._

_“How about we step into the office~?” Jin gave her an uncertain look – and why wouldn’t he? His office was on the fourth floor. With his eyes on Junko, however, he missed Mukuro pouncing down from the ceiling and striking him in the back of the head, knocking him out instantly as he collapsed unceremoniously. Junko curtsied at the unconscious man. “ **My** office~! Don’t worry, Muku will show ya the way.”_

_Mukuro frowned as Junko turned on her heel and flounced off without a care in the world._

_“I have to carry him by myself…?” Of course the soldier was used to doing the grunt work, but this was actually someone she knew fairly well… It felt different somehow._

_“C’mon, c’mon, keep up~! Ya gettin’ tired? Or do ya wanna go watch Naegi-chan and Maizono-chan roll in the sack~?” Junko missed the way Mukuro’s eyes darkened at that moment, but if she had seen it, she only would’ve twisted the knife some more._

_Mukuro hefted the Headmaster over one shoulder and moved to follow Junko with a surly stride. Of course, none of their classmates would actually be getting any natural sleep tonight… they’d be gassed before they even know what hit them, but still… Did Junko **have** to remind her of the way Maizono was clinging to Naegi-kun?_

_Mukuro growled under her breath impatiently. She couldn’t wait for the rematch. She was going to **win** this time, damnit. _

~*~

Despite their heartwarming reunion, Makoto still had questions about what had gone on while he was away. Mukuro tried to answer them to the best of her ability; she was still rather out of it from the whole ordeal, but she was able to explain because Naegi-kun was **here**. Alive. And no matter what came next, she could keep going so long as it stayed that way…

Having said that… Of course, “what came next” came marching into the Headmaster’s office – in the form of a small battalion of Monokuma’s in three tidy little rows. The soldier counted at least nineteen of the bastards… As a precaution, Mukuro shielded Makoto with her body

“Well, well, well, well, well, well, well!” The Monokuma at the head of the pack spoke up in an obnoxiously cheerful voice. “So in the end, the **should-have-been-executed** bitch comes craaawling back, huh? You think I’m gonna pull my punches after that stunt you pulled, assaulting your Headmaster?! After all that trouble I went through preparing your punishment…”

Mukuro narrowed her eyes and scowled with determination.

“I will **not** let you have your way anymore…! Naegi-kun is coming with **me**!”

Monokuma shrugged lazily at the passionate decree.

“And if you really wanna drag him to Hell with you, hey… That’s your call, sister! If the **villain** is identified correctly in the Class Trial, she alone will be punished… Sorry to say, that’s the rule! So I’ll just have to punish you again! And this time, I’ll make **sure** it works!”

Makoto poked his head out from behind Mukuro in alarm.

“N-No, no, no…! You **didn’t** identify her correctly! Ikusaba is **not** the killer!”

The monochrome bear scoffed at the predictable defense.

“Like I’d take the word of the boy stuck in Detention!”

Mukuro spread out her arms to better shield the luckster.

“I-Ikusaba…!”

“If you want to execute me again, that’s fine…” Mukuro declared with a stormy expression. “But allow me to say this: You know me. You **know** I will fight back. And if I do that… the other students are bound to hear the explosions, especially with the ‘overkill’ you went with here. And if they catch wind of our war, the audience is bound to, as well. And the moment they do… you lose. Are you okay with that?”

Monokuma tilted his head in confusion.

“Huh? Me? Lose? Hey! What’s that supposed to mean, short trooper?!”

“Simple.” Mukuro spoke like she was addressing a child. “You executed me on the premise that **I killed Kyoko Kirigiri and Makoto Naegi** , or at the least, had a hand in their deaths and the parts that came after. If even one of those two was found to still be **alive** … That premise goes out the window! The trial would need to be reopened for investigation. And if you executed me before my guilt could be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt… then you lose. After all, the new verdict hasn’t been handed down yet.”

Makoto’s brow furrowed as Mukuro proceeded to negotiate with the Mastermind. It was… surreal, seeing the Ultimate Soldier talk like this without shying away or stuttering. It made sense that she’d have a boatload of confidence even when her life was in danger, but this… It was almost like she was a completely different person.

“Hmm…” Monokuma hummed noncommittally. “So that means I lose? Lemme get this straight – you’re claiming the real villain was **someone else** and not you?”

Mukuro smirked darkly.

“I’m saying **you** were the villain this time, and you and I both know that to be true… I might’ve miscalculated, but so did you…”

Monokuma tilted his head again.

“Then where’s your evidence?”

“I don’t have any.” Mukuro deadpanned. Makoto winced at the concession… She doesn’t sugarcoat it!

Monokuma trembled with rage at this.

“Is this your idea of a joke? How can you talk like a bigshot and not even have any evidence to back it up?”

Mukuro’s glare sharpened at the bear.

“ **I don’t have any** because your rules forbid me from ‘spoilers’… remember? But I’m sure with a little more time, Naegi-kun and the rest will be able to find everything they need. **I’m** suggesting that we make a little wager involving them.”

Monokuma scoffed.

“So you’re saying that you’ll be a lazy ass and let your ‘pals’ haul your ass out of the fire? Even though they shoved you there in the first place? You think this counts in place of evidence? You think this **satisfies me**?”

Mukuro shrugged nonchalantly.

“Maybe you’re right… But it’s the same for the audience. Executing me, even taking Naegi-kun with me… That’s not going to satisfy them. They’ll think you executed the two of us because everything I’ve spoken now is the truth, and that ‘ **Hope** ’ cannot be killed with ‘ **Despair** ’.”

“Grr!” The bear growled in agitation.

“If your stance is what I’m saying is baseless, you just need to prove it, right? You have no choice **but** to prove it… Because if you execute us here while my guilt is still in question, you’re admitting defeat…”

“Grrrrr!” Monokuma raised a claw threateningly.

“Why the long face, Monokuma-chan~?” Mukuro tilted her head innocently. “All I want is a friendly little wager, from one dastardly Mastermind to a former unwitting gofer. Your rules effectively have me muzzled as it is, so it’s not like **I** can satisfy the audience, either. Only Naegi-kun and the other academic coliseum participants can…”

Monokuma paused thoughtfully before it grounded out a response.

“… So, what is it? This ‘wager’ of yours?”

“I want us to retry Kyoko Kirigiri’s murder case. This time, with Makoto Naegi participating, too. And also, you hold a fair Class Trial that abides by the school rules… No ‘rushed decision-making because we’re out of time’ nonsense… A real final battle between ‘ **Hope** ’ and ‘ **Despair** ’… Doesn’t that sound like **fun**? Pretty exhilarating for a climax…”

Makoto’s confusion only mounted, the more Mukuro debated with Monokuma. She really wasn’t sounding like herself at all… And it’s not like Monokuma had any reason to listen to them. Surely, he’d kill them, no questions asked…

But the luckster’s expectations were blown off-track by Monokuma’s amused giggle.

“Hehehe… Intriguing… **Beary** intriguing!”

“Beary?” Makoto repeated owlishly.

Monokuma’s paws flew over his mouth as he giggled.

“I’m trying out a new personality! I couldn’t **bear** the old one any longer! Anyways, that’s not a beary bad idea. It’s a pretty fitting climax, I’ll give you that.”

Mukuro grinned excitedly, eyes widening the tiniest amount.

“So you accept…?”

Monokuma shrugged carelessly.

“If I do, will that satisfy you lot **and** the viewers? And when you’re satisfied, will you Despair for me? If you will, then honey, show me where to ursine! Will you lot and your ‘ **Hope** ’ win out… or will me and my ‘ **Despair** ’ take the crown?” Monokuma clutched his belly and belted out a laugh. “A bearitable final battle! A real kodiak moment!”

_‘He accepted?!’_ Makoto couldn’t believe it. Then there was still a chance…!

But the bear continued with the negotiations.

“However, since this **is** the climax, it would be pretty boring if all Naegi-kun and crew had to do was find the culprit. So! To make it befitting of a final conflict, they’ll need to lay bear **all** of the mysteries!”

“All of the mysteries…?” Makoto echoed.

“Every single mystery bearied in the academy. If you manage to solve all of them… then I’ll call it your guys’ victory! To reiterate: If you guys can uncover Kyoko Kirigiri’s murderer, how the crime was committed, and, on top of that… solve all the academy’s mysteries… then I’ll admit defeat! But when the polar opposite happens…”

“Then we’ll all be executed…” Mukuro summarized.

Monokuma giggled again.

“Heeheehee… I can bearly contain my excitement… When you learn the grizzly truth… Just what kind of Despair will you lot show me?”

Mukuro’s grin widened, though Makoto didn’t see it.

“We’re the ones that should be excited… No more hiding behind locked doors or pet bears… Monokuma unmasked, bearing it all for the world… All that soft, plump, sensitive **flesh** out in the open, just begging for a vivisection – though **I** won’t be doing it for ‘science’…” Mukuro giggled hysterically a little before she shook her head slowly. “But first, I need you to clarify something for Naegi-kun here… You’ve said before, Class Trials are held when murders are committed among the students, right? There’s no inaccuracies in that?”

Monokuma giggled mischievously.

“There’s no need to pry it out of me~… I’m an approachable kind of bear! Everything that’s happened… has all been in accordance with the school rules! And – it goes without saying – Kyoko Kirigiri’s murder is no exception… I’ll even throw Naegi-kun a bone since the others are probably gonna bring it up at some point anyway~ There are a total of **sixteen students** in this academic coliseum… Also, since the coliseum commenced operation, the only living humans that set foot in this academy… are those beary same sixteen students!”

“What?!” Makoto exclaimed, recalling Alter Ego’s info on Hope’s Peak Academy’s Headmaster, and how that seemed to conflict with what Monokuma just said. “I-Is that true…?”

But Monokuma clammed up. Mukuro arched an eyebrow.

“Why the silent treatment, Monokuma-chan…?”

Monokuma raised his paws defiantly.

“ **This conversation is over**! I got nothing left to talk with you losers about! Now **scram**!” He whirled on the other eighteen Monokuma’s lined up behind him. “You idiots, too! **Scraaaaaam**!”

As the bears moved to comply, Makoto scratched his head in confusion.

“What the heck…? Now he’s angry?”

Mukuro shrugged nonchalantly.

“Maybe he has borderline personality disorder…”

“Shut up and get lost!” Monokuma snapped back waspishly.

… Still, Makoto **had** to hesitate…

“A-Are you sure we can go…?”

Monokuma **stared** at the luckster.

“Whatevs… You’re gonna be executed later anyway! So I’m gonna prepare something **veeery** Despairingly special for you guys! Upu… Upupupu… Upupupupupupupupupupupu…” Giggling in a creepy and unstable manner, Monokuma took his leave after the others had departed.

Mukuro breathed a sigh of relief and dropped her arms once they were alone again. Shyly, she turned to the luckster.

“W-Well… Let’s go, Naegi-kun. We have to find the others and explain what’s going on.”

Makoto grinned wryly and nodded.

“Y-Yeah… Um… So what was that about?”

Mukuro tilted her head.

“Hmm? What was what about?”

Makoto scratched his cheek sheepishly.

“Th-That negotiation… I hadn’t seen anything quite like that from you, so I was just… curious…”

Mukuro stared at him for a few moments before patting his head fondly.

“It’ll be okay. I promise I won’t let it get out of hand this time. I-I’m… going to get you out of here. I just… needed to make a strong case, or Monokuma would never have gone along with it…”

Makoto nodded in apparent understanding.

“Y-Yeah, I guess you’re right…”

As they left the Headmaster’s Office together, the voice preened in the back of her head.

_‘It’ll be **our** little secret, m’dear~! Naegi-kun will neeever know you let me take the wheel!’_

Slowly, Mukuro twitched. It was a gamble… But she was glad that negotiating was ‘all’ that voice did… If she had been in charge, that wouldn’t have come across nearly as strong, and Junko might’ve grown **bored** …

Hey, she said she was going to do **whatever it took** to get Naegi-kun out of this hellhole… right?

~*~

Mondo rubbed the back of his head as he looked around the mostly empty dining hall. He’d woken up that morning feeling numb from the previous day’s events, but this…

“Shit… This is real, isn’t it?” Mouth thinned into a scowl as he sat down and stared at his food, still overwhelmed.

Fujisaki poked his index fingers together and nodded sadly.

“I-It is…” The programmer knew exactly how his friend was feeling – after all, the same loneliness was drowning him, too.

The two of them were the only ones to come and stay for breakfast. Only two. It was… quite a difference from the fifteen they originally started with.

Only two…

“Damnit…” Mondo hung his head, placing his hands on his hips. “I’m sorry, Fujisaki… I shouldn’t have blown Ludenberg off like that. Even if I don’t like her… she’s a better sight than Togami, I’ll give her that.”

Fujisaki wrung his hands nervously as he looked to the biker worriedly.

“N-No, no…! Y-You didn’t… do anything wrong, Oowada…!” Fujisaki tried to placate his friend. “You just… Everyone’s tense right now, w-we’ll recover!”

Mondo’s scowl deepened.

“I dunno, kid… It’s just the five of us left. You, me, Maizono, Ludenberg, and Togami. Ikusaba’s still alive… for now… But she’s trapped.” The biker clicked his tongue and raised a twitching hand in aggravation. “And the rest of us…? Shit. Maizono won’t come out of her room. Ludenberg... tries… I gotta give credit where it’s due. And Togami’s lone wolf again… I dunno if we **can** recover from this! We’ve… we’ve lost too much.”

Mondo clenched a fist and squeezed his eyes shut in anguish. Ishimaru… Oogami… Naegi… Why? Why did they have to keep losing people? Such **good** people? It wasn’t right and it wasn’t fair. Ishimaru shouldn’t have been the one to die… Mondo was the coward who couldn’t let go of his past. If he could have taken Ishimaru’s execution, taken his place, Mondo would have gladly done so.

That goes for Oogami and Naegi, too. If he could exchange his life for theirs, so that they could be living right this moment, he would. Mondo wasn’t suicidal – but these were **good people**. They would have the heart, the courage, the **strength** to keep everyone together, even now… Better than him, a weakling who couldn’t let go of his anger.

Mondo wanted to take the reins like Bro would have wanted him to… But now he wondered if he was ever going to be ready to take that responsibility. They had lost too much…

Chihiro struggled to muster the words that would help uplift Mondo’s spirits. He felt the same overwhelming powerlessness, after all. But eventually, he said…

“W-We have lost too much…” The programmer dipped his head morosely. “But… We can’t give in! E-Even if we made mistakes… Even if… they deserved to live more than me… I want to live on for them! W-We can’t… we can’t let their lives be for nothing…”

Mondo reeled back a little at Chihiro’s response. He would’ve said that such determination was uncharacteristic of the meek programmer, but he knew by now that this was who Chihiro was. He… He did have an amazing strength, buried deep within him. At one time, Mondo had almost killed him for it out of envy…

Even now, that old jealousy bubbled up. But Mondo could control it better now. His scowl turned into a light frown.

“You’re… you’re right, Fujisaki… Some things… they gotta be remembered…” The biker raised a clenched fist. “We have them to thank for still being alive! I ain’t letting their memory go to waste.”

Carrying someone’s memory, rather than just moving on with your life, is a much harsher road to travel. But Mondo would do it. He’d do it for all of them. Everyone that died…

“U-Uh…” Both biker and programmer panned their heads over to the entrance to the cafeteria. A familiar voice they thought they would never hear again had been the one to speak, and they thought they had just imagined it. But an unbelievable sight met their eyes. Makoto, lacking his hoodie, smiling timidly as he waved at them. And Mukuro standing next to him. “H-Hey, guys…”

They could hardly believe their eyes and ears. Mondo rubbed at his eyes to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating… but the luckster and soldier were still there when he looked again.

“N-Naegi…!” Fujisaki was the first to cry out in astonishment, a smile slowly spreading across his face.

“NAEGI!” Mondo shouted next, not one to be outdone.

The two of them ran over to the luckster, and still he didn’t vanish. Makoto just rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, muttering apologies.

“S-Sorry I worried you guys… Monokuma had me hidden away, and I only woke up a little bit ago.”

Mondo held up a twitching hand furiously.

“That piece of shit…! Wait until I get my hands on that little bastard!”

Fujisaki stared at the luckster in palpable relief, eyes watering.

“H-How’d you escape…?”

Makoto half-turned to Mukuro with a shy smile.

“Ikusaba… I dunno how, but she figured out I wasn’t dead, and she saved me. If it wasn’t for her… I think Monokuma would’ve made me watch as you guys killed each other. He… He had more motives planned, I guess.”

… Of course he did. The bear loved to make them suffer…

But that didn’t matter now. Oowada and Fujisaki stared at the soldier, absolutely floored. A light pink dusted Mukuro’s cheeks as she smiled shyly as well and looked off to the side.

“I-It wasn’t hard… I noticed Naegi-kun’s measurements in the Monokuma File were slightly off… Wh-When I saw they matched Fukawa’s measurements, I knew Monokuma tricked us. What really saved us… was the skeleton key Naegi-kun left with Maizono… Sh-She gave it back to me before the trial.”

At Oowada and Fujisaki’s confusion, the luckster elaborated on what Ikusaba had done for them after Oogami’s trial. The treasure that Monokuma had been searching for… she had stolen it. Makoto also explained how he, Sayaka, and Kyoko hatched a plan to open up all the hidden areas on the first floor, which Mukuro chipped in that was another reason she was able to escape at all – if that hatch had been locked in the garbage disposal room, her escape would have been much harder.

By the end of the explanation, Mondo was rubbing at his eyes again… this time furiously. Chihiro looked to him in concern.

“D-Don’t cry, Oowada…!”

“ **I’m not crying**!” The biker denied loudly and heatedly, embarrassed. “I just got… shit.”

His voice was cracking up, giving his emotions away. Makoto smiled apologetically at the biker, and Mukuro looked around curiously.

“Where… is everyone else?” She suspected they’d be in disarray after the Class Trial, but only two showing up for breakfast?

Fujisaki poked his index fingers together nervously.

“Th-They’re, well…” He trailed off somberly.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to do any explanations.

“Naegi-kun…?” A fragile whisper came from the hallway. The party turned to look, and saw not just Celes, but Togami standing there as well, both of them having wondered what Oowada had been yelling about. The gambler was staring with wide, disbelieving eyes as she held a knuckle over her mouth. Not even Togami could hide his shock, the way his glasses were askew as he stared gobsmacked at the luckster.

“You’re still **alive** …? Even after all that?!” The heir just couldn’t rein himself in. It was utterly impossible for the luckster to have returned – Togami had seen the explosion and crime scene for himself… Confirmed with his own eyes that it had been Naegi that went up in smoke…

And yet the living contradiction was standing right in front of him. Makoto rubbed the back of his neck and smiled wryly.

“Well, I’m not a ghost or a zombie…” The luckster chuckled sheepishly.

Against his will, Togami scoffed on instinct.

“Of course not. Only Hagakure would believe such delusions. And there’s no one in the world that would want to impersonate a commoner like you…”

Makoto chuckled sheepishly and took the jab in stride. He spread his arms and shrugged nonchalantly.

“Well… there ya go. I’m not a mirage, and I’m not going anywhere.” The luckster promised resolutely.

“Preposterous!” And it was. It well and truly was. Monokuma had done many things by this point to humiliate the Togami family, but orchestrating a fake murder that even Byakuya Togami bought into… It left a bad taste in his mouth that he’d been forced into a rushed verdict that even he didn’t believe completely – but this? This was a new low for him. To have fallen for such tricks…

Still… He’d be lying if he said relief hadn’t wormed its way into his heart. Naegi’s death had been a major blow. To say Naegi’s continued existence meant nothing to him… Not even he was that cold.

Togami crossed his arms, regaining some of his composure.

“I suppose we’ll be seeing Kirigiri next…” The heir watched as Makoto dipped his head sadly; no words were needed to decipher that reaction. “I see.”

So Kirigiri was truly gone. While a part of Togami was relieved he hadn’t been fooled **that** badly, it was still a significant loss in brainpower in the group. But this did make the heir all the more curious… In the grand scheme, what did this **mean** for them? Here was living, breathing proof the latest murder had been a setup. At the least, the murder would require reinvestigation… Even if Monokuma tried to brush it aside, Togami wouldn’t allow it.

The Mastermind would **not** get off that easily. This humiliation demanded recompense.

“Kirigiri’s gone…” Makoto mumbled. “Monokuma said it himself. But if I’m honest, that gets at something we need to tell you guys… C-Celes…?”

As the luckster trailed off, catching his breath from when the gambler tackled him in a hug, he couldn’t help looking down at her in concern. Mukuro doing so had been surprising enough, but Celes hugging him… in front of the others like this… He couldn’t help worrying for his friend. Had he distressed her that much? Celes prided herself on masking her emotions… She rarely wore them on her sleeve – willingly, anyway.

Feeling her shoulders wrack with silent sobs as she hugged his neck tighter and burrowed her head in his shoulder, Makoto wrapped his arms around her waist and didn’t prompt her further. She needed this, and he wasn’t going to embarrass her. You didn’t need to be dignified in a place like this; not when they’d been through so much. The best thing he could do right now, to protect her feelings, was silently comfort her. If she wanted to reapply her mask after… he wasn’t going to begrudge her.

For Celes – no, for Taeko herself, she didn’t care about of that crap right now. She couldn’t restrain herself anymore. The longer she watched and listened to him, confirming for herself that he was **alive** , Taeko lacked the will or strength to put up her Celestia Ludenberg front. **Makoto was alive**. It… That fact made all that pain, all that suffering she put herself through with trying to keep the group together… All that effort with no gratitude or much help from the others…

It had all been worth it. When Sayaka’s betrayal had been revealed, Taeko really started to wonder. Second chances meant squat if the people you were forced to live with hated your guts or were simply untrustworthy. She wasn’t going to squander her life again with a gamble that would never pay off… But really. Her connections with the others felt so frayed, so brittle, and she **didn’t know how she was going to get out of this hellhole** …

It had all been worth it.

It had all… been worth it…

“Celes really stepped up during the investigation!” Fujisaki happily beamed as the luckster consoled the gambler. Taeko stiffened as the praise came out of nowhere for her. “The trial would’ve gone a lot worse if she hadn’t been there!”

Mondo rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

“Y-Yeah… I’ll agree with that… She did suspect Ikusaba and Maizono, but we were all pointing fingers at some point. Plus, she kept Togami in line better than I did.”

The aforementioned heir rolled his eyes stubbornly.

“I’ll confess, we needed someone to keep these plebeians level-headed, and Ludenberg was… adequate.”

Mukuro frowned in thought, even as she did feel a little irritated watching the gambler hug it out with Makoto. It was true Celes at least made an effort… Unlike Togami, who was gunning for Ikusaba mercilessly. The gambler had voted for her, in the end, but Junko rushed them into voting in the first place. Besides, Celes shared information more generously than the others tended to.

This didn’t redeem her actions from the third trial… But Mukuro had to give credit where it was due. Celes… tried. She took charge when Naegi-kun was unable to.

_‘Which is to say if Naegi-kun **was** there, she would’ve been prickly and unhelpful as Salty Moneybags~…’ _

Mukuro twitched at the voice’s accusation. She… couldn’t deny the possibility of that…

“Thanks, Celes…” Makoto smiled gratefully as the gambler pressed her face further into his shoulder to hide her flushed cheeks. He rubbed her back comfortingly. “I know it was probably hard… But you looked after everyone! I really can’t thank you enough. I’m… I’m glad you gave everyone a chance. We’re all in this together, so we’ll be there for you, too. I promise.”

Taeko could only shake her head into his shoulder, not trusting her voice at the moment. Makoto chuckled and just held her as close as she wanted to be. He figured she probably still held him in the highest regard of everyone here, but they’d work on those bonds with the others. She had already come so far with the second chance she’d been given… Makoto hoped this incident would help the others see that. That she wasn’t just the selfish, self-centered girl that dreamed of acquiring a castle – she was changing for the better…

But even as they relaxed in one another’s company, basked in the feeling of being alive… Makoto knew they had to talk about the final trial.

And that there was one person still missing from their group…

~*~

The bluenette lied on her bed numbly and stared up at the ceiling with puffy eyes. She had cried herself out long ago… And it wasn’t just because of the previous day’s events. Makoto’s death had been too great of a loss… in more ways than one. Bad enough she lost Makoto. Makoto, who believed in her the most, grounded her in sanity, and kept the fires of hope burning within her heart… Bad enough Monokuma revealed her sin to the others and no longer trusted her. Bad enough she couldn’t stay in his room to delude herself into thinking she would wake up and he’d be right there…

Ever since last night she became even more confused and inconsolable. Why? Because when she had tried to stay in his room, she had come across a pendant that she hadn’t noticed there before… Whether it was the bastard that killed Naegi, or Kirigiri that had left it there for her to find, Sayaka didn’t care. Sayaka **thought** she understood everything that was going on in this wretched academy – that she had lost Makoto before she had the chance to tell him her feelings… But now… Now she didn’t know **what** she lost.

Just what was Makoto to her? Ever since the Killing School Life began, the two of them had become fast friends, and clicked together so well… It’d been understandable why she fell so hard and fast for him. She stuck closest to him, felt safest with him, was happiest with him… Sayaka had chalked that all up to their terrible circumstances. Not that she wouldn’t have felt a strong bond with him without this Killing School Life – the idol was pretty confident that they could’ve had a happy, normal high school life together. But adding this sense of danger… Sayaka knew all too well that people reacted differently when under pressure; there was always the possibility that after they got out, she and Makoto would drift apart because there wasn’t a life-or-death situation to make them cling to one another…

Now Sayaka wasn’t so sure. Maybe she leaned on Makoto for a more personal, intimate reason. At least… that’s what that pendant would have her believe. If Makoto… If Makoto was more to her than just a friend… If she had broken the #1 taboo in the idol industry for Makoto… Then it was no wonder they had been so close. On an instinctive level, they must have known this. Even if nothing else made sense, they still had one another to fall back on. Even if their memories were somehow taken away… they still had raw instincts that drew them together.

And yet… as happy as it made her that they might have **possibly** , somehow, been a couple… That meant Makoto’s death was that much worse. She lost her boyfriend, had considered manipulating that very same boyfriend **during the very first motive** , no less… but more than that…

Sayaka couldn’t even remember the days they had been a couple. As much as she tried and tried and tried, she couldn’t remember. Most would have chalked up the pendant to be nothing more than a cruel fabrication from Monokuma, but Sayaka knew better. Her intuition told her… it was very real, and that she had lost so much more than she initially realized when Makoto died… If she did, in fact, risk her career for this wonderful boy, then he was her entire world. She wouldn’t have broken the rules for anything less; her dream of singing forever with her idol group was not made on a whim, it was her life’s work. Sayaka knew the risks that came with idols on the dating scene – the rules had been drilled into her head since day one. **No dating**. And yet, despite that… she put everything on the line anyway. Was even going to repeat the same ‘mistakes’ because she couldn’t help herself around the luckster… Monokuma even televised the whole thing.

She hadn’t been able to get a wink of sleep with these painful revelations. The idol could care less if her career was over. She… found it very hard to care, when her heart had been so cruelly and viciously ripped out and shredded to pieces. Sayaka tried numerous times to look on the bright side – that her bandmates and father were still alive. That she could escape with the others.

But if Monokuma killed the one person she loved the most… what were a few more dead loved ones to that bastard bear?

Sayaka felt so listless and hollow. She was an empty void. Makoto was gone. The others no longer trusted her. And her career was finished. There was… nothing left for her now. Absolutely nothing.

What point was there to continue living, if all it did was prolong the aching, throbbing pain throughout her heart and body? One that she **knew** was never going to go away? She… She needed to end it. Oowada-kun was more than capable of inspiring and leading everyone to finally escape this hellhole… Sayaka knew she’d just be deadweight. And even if she did escape, who was going to guarantee she had anyone to return to? While it’s true Makoto couldn’t have made that guarantee, at least she **had** him… Makoto was like a physical manifestation of hope – so long as he was there, she could keep holding out for a little while longer. In the wake of his death, the world seemed darker and that much more uncertain.

It’s not like the others would miss her, anyway. Well, Celes and Togami, anyway. She was just a flight risk by this point, all too susceptible to Monokuma’s motives.

She should just end it. Just end… everything…

Unexpectedly, her doorbell rang. Sayaka knew she should probably answer it… but she just lacked the strength to. Or at the least, the desire to… It was probably Oowada or Fujisaki again, checking in on her…

The doorbell kept ringing. Not incessantly, but her visitor kept trying for what must have been several minutes. Sayaka had to give them credit for their persistence, but she still felt very little drive to reward them for the commitment… She continued to lie on her bed, unmoving. Empty, hollow, and numb.

After a few more minutes, it became clear the visitor wasn’t going anywhere. Taking a trembling, ragged breath, Sayaka forced her arms and legs to move so she could uneasily get out of bed. She knew she must have looked horrible, not having showered or even washed her face… But maybe that would be enough to scare the visitor into leaving her alone. Clutching onto that pendant like it was her power source to keep moving… she approached the door, where the bell was still occasionally ringing.

With a trembling hand, Sayaka yanked the door open a crack. If she had the strength or desire to, she might have opened it enough to poke her head out fully… But she was tired. Oh so tired. And hurting. And why did she have to get up for this stubborn asshole…? If this was Togami or Celes, she was going to give them a piece of her mind…

“Wh-Who is it…?” Sayaka rasped out, her throat straining to even ask that simple question. Through the crack, she was able to see the hallway, but not much else…

“S-Sayaka…? Are you okay?”

The idol froze at that voice. She must have hallucinated it. Oowada… Oowada had helped her realize Makoto was never coming back. H-He was… dead. She had to accept that… to… move on…

Not that she could do that. Makoto could, if their positions were reversed. She knew… Makoto was stout, unwavering. Her death would have hurt him, but he would have carried on.

Why was she adding more onto her pile of misery…? She admired, even envied, that strength and willpower of his so much… and he was gone…

“Sayaka, I promise, it’s **me**!” The voice persisted. “C-Could you please open up…? I just want to make sure you’re okay…”

Sayaka squeezed her eyes shut in anguish. This was worse than Togami or Celes… This **had** to be Monokuma. If she opened that door, she was going to subject herself to a new wave of disappointment and depression. And that bear was going to laugh right in her face…

Despite knowing these things… Sayaka fully opened the door. It was a herculean effort… and her eyes were squeezed painfully shut as a self-defense mechanism… But she accomplished it. The idol absolutely refused to open her eyes. She would wait for the inevitable laughter, and slam the door…

She would… slam the…

Tears streamed from Sayaka’s eyes as she felt something warm and tender cup her face. Monokuma had to be going all-out for this ruse… But it worked. Sayaka foolishly opened her eyes.

Makoto was staring right back at her with nothing but care and compassion. And it was his hand that was cupping her face. Makoto’s warmth that cradled her cheek, spreading warmth and **feeling** throughout her whole body.

“A-Are… Are you real…?” Sayaka whispered hoarsely, the tears just kept coming. She fully expected him to say ‘no’, to laugh and accuse her of betraying him, to die right in front of her again, and she’d wake up screaming.

Makoto’s free hand gripped her shoulder consolingly, and he nodded resolutely.

“I am.” Makoto promised with a raw passion that made Sayaka shiver at the sensations of touch and hearing overwhelming her. “And I’m so sorry I worried you, Sayaka… I’m sorry I wasn’t there. I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough to protect myself. I’m sorry… you thought I was dead... I’m so, so, **so** sorry, Sayaka… I know I can’t ever make it up to you, but I’m here. I… I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”

Sayaka’s throat felt dry as his words hit home for her. If this was a dream, she never wanted to wake up ever again. Numbly, the pendant dropped out of her hand. And the next thing the luckster knew, Sayaka had him wrapped in the tightest, most desperate hug yet. Makoto took a wobbly step back as he tried to stabilize them, but he soon collapsed due to the idol losing the will to stand herself and pressing all of her weight into him. They fell unceremoniously, his head almost hit the door on the opposite wall yet he narrowly missed, and the idol was on top of him and still clinging as if he’d vanish in a wisp of smoke if she let go.

“You’re real…” The idol sobbed, taking deep, panting breaths. Her nails were starting to dig in a little as she clutched him tighter and tighter. “You’re real, you’re real, **you’re real** …”

Makoto chuckled sheepishly, despite the compromising position they were in. He stroked the back of the bluenette’s head affectionately as she cried, and cried, and cried her heart out. Though he wanted to at least adjust their position to make them a little more comfortable, he got the feeling having them sit up was going to have to wait. Sayaka hadn’t looked to be in the best of shape, and really… she deserved to just let it all out, like Ikusaba and Celes had.

The luckster awkwardly rocked them back and forth a bit to try and further soothe the idol. It wasn’t an instant thing, but the idol did eventually calm down, seemingly running out of tears. It was at that point Makoto sensed he’d have better luck getting them to sit up together, so he helped Sayaka along, letting her cling as much as she needed to. The singer leaned into him as the new position became a little “too” comfy, and her eyes glazed over, head resting on his shoulder.

“Y-Your hoodie’s gone…” Sayaka rasped, couldn’t help but noticing. The luckster chuckled sheepishly.

“Y-Yeah… Ikusaba told me it got blown up. Guess this’ll teach me to stock up on spare hoodies, huh?”

The idol tried to grin, but everything ached. She still wanted the pain to stop, but now there was only one cure for it… The boy she was leaning all her weight into and gripping like a life preserver. The warmth and Makoto’s natural, earthy scent… They were intoxicating, and she gluttonously indulged in the sensations.

Makoto smiled kindly and massaged her back.

“I never did thank you for watching me while I was sick… so… thanks!” The brunet chuckled sheepishly, and Sayaka moaned a little in response. It appeared it would take a little longer for her vocal chords to get back working normally.

He was kind of glad that he asked Ikusaba to fill the others in at the cafeteria… Not because Sayaka deserved any more privacy than the other girls did, but just… that position they’d ended up in for a while was fresh in his mind, and the luckster blushed, knowing that Sayaka placed a lot of trust in him to be intimate like **that**. Would’ve been embarrassing to be seen sprawled out like that… He was very conscientious of certain parts of her anatomy pressing into him. Plus, he had a hunch that Ikusaba and Celes would have taken issue with… well… all of it.

Makoto gulped a little. Yeah… Ikusaba had been a little worked up seeing Celes hug it out with him… If they’d seen **this** ‘hugging’ session… He shivered at how they would have reacted.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, his mind was taken off that as he heard the screen go off in Sayaka’s room.

“May I have your attention, please?” Monokuma’s voice rang out, loud and clear. No doubt the others were hearing the same announcement. “As I expect you guys are already aware… our academic coliseum is rapidly entering its final chapter, wherein **all will be revealed**! In the spirit of fairness, I’ve opened up all the locks in the building! Investigate as much as you’d like! Solve mysteries to your hearts’ content! Upupu… See you at the Class Trial… Daaaaahahahaha!” The screens throughout the academy flickered off.

Sluggishly, Sayaka pulled back just enough to stare at him with wide eyes, not having the slightest clue about what was going on. Makoto smiled wryly and wiped away a few stray tears off her cheek with his thumb. He’d have to fill her in, and fast…

Through it all, Sayaka considered explaining the pendant and her thoughts about possible amnesia… But she was too awestruck about Makoto’s side of the story, and it slipped her mind at the end…

That didn’t stop her from retrieving the pendant from where she dropped it, as Makoto walked off towards the cafeteria to find the others; she told him she’d catch up. She stared down at it with renewed vigor before slipping it around her neck.

She’d tell him later. That was a promise.

~*~

“How gracious of him – unlocking every door…” Celes mused, hands on her hips after they all regrouped.

Togami crossed his arms.

“The time for chitchat is over. Now we investigate.”

“B-But…” Makoto trailed off at the heir’s attitude, only to be cut off.

“I was planning to investigate by myself, regardless… This late in the game, all I can rely on is myself – and the **Togami** blood coursing through my veins. You shouldn’t concern yourself with others, either. Just do what you need to do… Goodbye…” Not allowing any room for rebuttal, Togami quickly left the cafeteria on his own. 

The remaining six stared at one another.

“That asshole… always doin’ whatever the hell he wants…” Mondo grumbled, clicking his tongue.

Celes twirled a lock of hair around her finger.

“He might have a point, though… As tempting as it would be to stay together…” The gambler yearningly eyed the luckster, who had Sayaka practically glued to him. “We have a lot of ground to cover, and I imagine our time is limited.”

Mondo growled lowly.

“That, and you still suspect one of us is the Mastermind, right?” The gambler hadn’t been gung-ho about the possibility like Togami had been, but she hadn’t denied it, either.

Celes calmly closed her eyes and sighed.

“It is a possibility we cannot ignore… But I wouldn’t worry. There **is** another possibility, so I will explore that before jumping to conclusions…” Celes cupped her hands under her chin and beamed pleasantly. “I shall see you later, Naegi-kun…”

And with that, the gambler departed as well, with Sayaka narrowing her eyes at her as she went. Mukuro ran a hand through her hair and sighed as well.

“I won’t be able to help with the ‘mysteries’ all that much… But I’ll investigate Kirigiri’s murder.” The soldier declared, before wrinkling her nose. “… After a fast shower.”

She **had** been in the garbage dump all night…

Mondo rubbed the back of his head as the soldier departed, and he looked to the programmer.

“How about you, Fujisaki?”

Chihiro tapped his chin thoughtfully.

“I… wanted to look into the Data Processing Room… and what’s behind the Monokuma door...” He beamed. “If it’s anything related to computers, I’ll definitely investigate everything about it! I-I want to help!”

Mondo grinned at the determination in the programmer’s voice.

“Well, that ain’t the place for me, then… I suck at computers.” The biker gave a thumbs-up to everyone remaining. “I’ll go check out the Bio Lab! I always pushed the risky stuff on the rest of you guys, so now it’s my turn to man up. Who knows what the hell could be in there?”

Makoto grinned amicably.

“Well, if you’re ever in trouble, just holler and we’ll come running!”

Mondo stilled at the familiar words. Then he barked out a laugh.

“Cheeky bastard!” His own words thrown back at him from back when he had Naegi check out the first motive… Reap what you sow, right?

Mondo and Chihiro left together, since their destinations were in the same direction anyway. Makoto and Sayaka exchanged grins before leaving together, too. They both wanted to investigate the same place.

As they approached the steps leading to the second floor dorms…

“Hey, Makoto…?” Sayaka bit her lower lip as she gathered his attention. She clasped her hands together and looked down with a sad expression. “I-I never said… But you didn’t need to apologize. For anything. I-I wasn’t strong enough to protect you, either, s-so… Don’t beat yourself up, okay?”

Makoto smiled wryly at those words.

“I know it’s ultimately the Mastermind’s fault…” The luckster scratched his cheek, troubled. “I just… can’t help feeling I let you guys down by not being there. Maybe I’m not the leader anymore, but I still feel responsible when things fall apart.”

Sayaka looked up with determination.

“It’s not you who failed, Makoto… we failed you. We let our emotions run wild, not you. But I… I’m going to be better. I’m going to be the Assistant I should have been from the beginning.” Being reminded of her mistakes from early on… really hit the idol hard, like a slap to the face.

But Makoto was alive… As long as he was here, Sayaka could keep moving on. The live broadcast still bothered her, because of the trouble it could cause Makoto after they got out of here, but she would protect him from any backlash. He shouldn’t have to suffer… because of risks she had taken. Risks that she still didn’t regret taking.

“Then… let’s both do our best!” Makoto resolved, his smile turning genuine. “I swore I’d get you out of here, and I will. I’ll get everyone out of here. It’s the only way I can feel better about everything that’s happened…”

Unable to help herself, Sayaka gathered him in another hug. The luckster didn’t have to keep to a promise she was at one time going to abuse for her benefit… But she was touched he still wanted to keep his word.

And she was going to reciprocate one hundred percent. Sayaka was not going to lose him again. They were getting out of here **together**.

Separating after a couple of moments, and exchanging reassuring smiles, they moved to the second floor, finally.

“ **This** is the second floor?!” Makoto let out upon seeing the rampant destruction. A hand had flown over Sayaka’s mouth as her eyes widened in terror.

“I-It’s like a battlefield…” Had bombs actually gone off here? She was well aware Monokuma’s were implanted with those, but this… This was another level of mayhem and destruction entirely.

The singer couldn’t help sticking close to Makoto as they first began exploring. The luckster wasn’t physically imposing or capable of holding his own like Ikusaba, but she felt… safer, all the same. And she felt like she’d be able to react faster and pull him out of harm’s way if anything… collapsed.

They checked the first branch hallway they came across. Most of the rooms were inaccessible, but one was open. It… honestly wasn’t any better off than the others. Just accessible. They couldn’t find any clues, so the two returned to where the hallway branched off and continued onward. There were bathrooms at the end of the hall, though just like the dorm room, no clues resided within. They continued to the right, and entered the next room they encountered. There was graffiti of a giraffe poking its head out of a locker on the door.

A locker room. This was different from the first floor, at least.

“These lockers must have been used… by the students who came before us.” Makoto deduced as he rubbed his chin. Sayaka nodded faintly as she drank in the room, it was as wrecked as the halls… perhaps even slightly moreso.

No bombs had gone off, but a lot of the lockers were dented and unopenable. And on top of that, there were a total of four huge metal plates – two square, two rectangular – that sealed off several lockers even worse than the banged up ones. And there were even some lockers whose doors had been completely wrenched and torn off, revealing empty and battered insides within. A few lockers had even been completely obliterated, leaving scraps of metal lying haplessly in the corners of the room.

Sayaka approached a locker on the left side of the room that appeared intact.

“This locker looks like it could be opened…” The idol mumbled, inspecting the card reader on it after rattling the handle to find it locked. “This card reader must control the lock…”

Makoto nodded slowly in agreement as he got a look at it, as well.

“H-Hey, yeah… Don’t these remind you of the card readers outside the pool changing rooms…? As I recall, those readers were activated by our e-handbooks… Maybe these do, too. No harm in trying.” The luckster then grinned sheepishly as he patted down his pockets and coming up short. “D-Do you mind…? I… lost mine.”

Sayaka smiled back sympathetically and brought out hers to try. As she waved it over the reader, there was a buzzing sound that rejected the ID.

“No luck, huh…?” The idol muttered as she tried it one more time to be safe. It didn’t pan out.

Makoto rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“Well, I guess it just works with the owner’s e-handbook… Maybe ours aren’t going to do any good.” He mused with a furrowed brow.

“There’s no harm in at least trying!” Sayaka echoed his earlier optimism, and they tried accessing the other six lockers that were left intact.

None of them opened for Sayaka’s e-handbook, so they took a look at the rest of the locker room with the same “just to check” attitude. There was nothing left in the wreckage, nothing in the trash can either or under the benches.

They left the locker room after a few more minutes of fruitless searching and returned to the hall, following it to the final room they could get into. It was a more ornate door than the previous ones, so it had them curious about what was inside… The inside was no less impressive, and was a definite improvement from the ruins outside.

“This doesn’t look much like a student’s room…” Sayaka mused, tapping her chin as they both drank in the room. “It’s more… sophisticated.”

Makoto nodded in agreement.

“Y-Yeah… I guess this must have belonged to one of the faculty here. We’ll definitely find something useful, here!”

“I sure hope so…” Sayaka grinned at his boundless optimism, and they got started.

The bed was certainly more luxurious than the ones in the student dorms. And there was a cushy, angular couch seated close to the bed with a coffee table in front of it. There was also bottles of alcohol and other miscellaneous commodities stored in a cabinet behind the couch. Looking in the nearby closet revealed duplicate pressed suits, dress shirts, and pants, along with a spare pair of dress shoes on the floor. There were a couple of potted plants in the corners of the room.

But the strangest parts of the room were an odd indentation in a wall next to a computer, with air flow seeping through the cracks. They deduced there had to be an open space on the other side, like a hidden room. The wall wouldn’t budge, however, no matter how they prodded it.

Left with nothing else to examine, they checked out the computer last. While it took some navigating, they found a couple of things. The first was a program that seemed to possibly be related to the wall they were unable to move; the problem became that it required a password, yet all they knew for certain was that it accepted letters and numbers, they didn’t have any concrete clues to go off of the top of their heads. The other thing they found was some personal files stored on the computer. There was a chance they could find what they needed within those files… But it appeared it would take a little extensive reading.

Sayaka had already taken the seat, and wheeled it up to the desk so she could set to work. She smiled at her luckster wryly.

“Um… Maybe you should investigate the other areas for now? It’s not like we both have to read this. There’s probably a lot more to look into.”

Makoto ran a hand through his hair slowly, frowning a little in concern.

“Y-You sure…? I don’t mind helping…”

But Sayaka shook her head.

“I’m your Assistant, Makoto. This is the very least I can do. Besides, there’s a lot we have to learn before we can hope to win the trial and get out of here. We investigated the dorms pretty thoroughly… you should go see how the others are doing.”

Nodding reluctantly, the luckster half-turned to leave.

“I-If you’re sure…” He trailed off hesitantly.

“I am.” She promised with a reassuring grin.

“Then… I’ll leave this to you.” Makoto returned her smile with a small grin, and took his leave.

Sayaka clutched the pendant over her chest… and beamed.

~*~

Everyone else had moved up to the fourth and fifth floors by this point. Chihiro, naturally, elected to take the Data Processing Room and the Monokuma door that lied within it. Mondo and Mukuro continued on up to the fifth floor. That left Byakuya and Celes, who both had the same destination in mind – the Headmaster’s Office. Though their motives weren’t aligned, their goal was the same.

Finding the truth.

“So this is where Naegi-kun was kept…” Celes mused, eyeing the scattered documents on the floor and the skewered Monokuma nearby with some distaste.

Togami was already over by the Headmaster’s desk, scooping up a file that was ostentatiously placed there.

“Assuming his tales of imprisonment are true, yes…” The heir began flicking through the file with a furrowed brow. Celes narrowed her eyes darkly at the implication.

“You still suspect him? Even now?”

Togami ceased his browsing and looked up sharply at the gambler.

“Ludenberg. We know that Ikusaba was, at one point, working with the Mastermind. The fact her execution failed, and the fact she discovered the ruse of Naegi’s death before the rest of us, both point to a possibility of Naegi being the Mastermind that we’ve been searching for.” Sensing the gambler’s obvious disdain for the theory, he heaved a sigh. “That said… Naegi is not my favorite suspect. Neither is Ikusaba for that matter. But we at least have to **consider** the possibility that they are lying to us… Where did that open-mindedness disappear to, hmm?”

Celes scowled at the barb but did not rise to the bait. She knew Ikusaba and Naegi-kun’s intel… It was likely solid. Only sixteen students were left alive within Hope’s Peak when the Killing Game began in earnest. That left only eight possible suspects for who the Mastermind could be, assuming none of the other deaths had been faked somehow… Celestia Ludenberg, Makoto Naegi, Mukuro Ikusaba, Chihiro Fujisaki, Mondo Oowada, Byakuya Togami, Sayaka Maizono, and the ever-elusive Junko Enoshima. They were all that was left.

Her eyes trailed to the plaque on the desk as Togami skimmed the file in his hands. She couldn’t keep the shock completely out of her voice as she commented on the name on the plaque.

“Jin Kirigiri…?” Her eyebrows arched in intrigue. Togami did not remove his eyes from the file as he reached a particular page.

“Indeed… It appears we finally understand why she was obsessed with finding the man. Whatever relation they had, they were family. That’s all I care to establish about that.” Togami stared at Celes out of the corner of his eye. “More importantly… Now we know what Kirigiri’s talent was.”

As Togami said this, Celes got a glimpse of the file’s title – “Class 78’s Student Register”. The blond also didn’t keep her in dispense as he showed off Kirigiri’s profile.

“So Class 78 refers to us… and Kirigiri was our resident Ultimate Detective. How fitting.” The gambler mused.

Togami crossed his arms as she took the file from his hands.

“I suppose now it makes sense why the Mastermind ended up using Kirigiri as a scapegoat… She must have tracked down Naegi or the Mastermind’s whereabouts. Perhaps discovered the ruse in the garden… and was summarily silenced for knowing too much. Of course, using this logic, that trims down our suspect list considerably. We already know the Mastermind is one of us. And if the Mastermind is the one that silenced Kirigiri – which I would bet my bottom dollar on… You, me, Oowada, and Fujisaki are most definitely out of the running – we were together all night. That leaves four potential suspects. Ikusaba, Naegi, Maizono, and Enoshima.”

Celes gnashed her teeth and glowered at Togami before she resumed reading the documents.

“For not being a ‘favorite suspect’, you’re rather gung-ho about the possibility that it could be Naegi-kun…”

Togami shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, raising his chin at the gambler.

“It’s a possibility we must evaluate if we’re going to finally escape… Like it or not, Ikusaba **could** have donned the white suit and mask, faked Naegi’s abduction, and then conspired with him to set up that fake murder scene and that farce of a trial to remove Naegi from the game without suspicion. For all we know, their plans were forced to change because Kirigiri gummed up the works. **We have to consider it**.”

Celes clicked her tongue. It was a compelling theory… if you completely ignored that **Naegi-kun wasn’t that type of person**. For Togami’s theory to check out, Naegi-kun would have to be a master at concealing his true emotions and intentions… And she refused to believe that blunt heart-on-his-sleeve attitude was all a charade. No one could perfectly maintain a cover 24/7; even she herself slipped in her persona from time to time, and she was the fabled King of Liars. Naegi-kun would have slipped and shown **something** by now if he was truly the Gamemaster; everyone feels a little secure when they feel no one’s watching them, and she’d snuck glances at him before during gatherings.

Not a single tell to indicate he was hiding something. Not a single one. Only a robot could pull off that kind of efficiency, and Naegi-kun was indeed a living, breathing person. His student profile confirmed it.

“Well, Headmaster Kirigiri seems to disagree with you…” Celes blithely responded, handing the file back to Togami so he could see for himself. “Completely ordinary background, family, connections… Naegi-kun’s here because he won a lottery. Apparently, Headmaster Kirigiri did some background checking to be absolutely certain, but even with Hope’s Peak’s resources, Naegi-kun turned up clean as a whistle. Even the medical examination didn’t reveal anything peculiar.”

Togami frowned as he read over the Headmaster’s notes himself. Indeed… Compared to the well-documented notes on Mukuro Ikusaba, which he’d skimmed before finding Kirigiri’s entry, Naegi was remarkably boring. You could find a kid like Naegi just about anywhere… It made his existence here at Hope’s Peak quite baffling, but then again, like Ludenberg said, the lottery that Hope’s Peak held was for this exact purpose – to give common riffraff a sporting chance to be allowed into a prestigious institution, with a side benefit of researching something as obscure and vague as… luck.

“Maybe…” Togami conceded as he stared down at the luckster’s portrait. The ‘Mastermind Naegi’ theory was really just to cover **all** their bases, more than anything… Even his own instincts were saying Naegi didn’t have anything to hide. Unlike with Ludenberg, Kirigiri, etc., Togami felt less threatened or edgy around the luckster. Because Naegi really did give off an honest vibe of being woefully average and dull, literally what’s on the tin, as the commoners would say.

Yet they **had** been wrong before… They say the brighter a light, the darker the shadows that accompany it. For all their sakes, he did hope Naegi would exceed expectations and prove him wrong.

What was one more miracle thrown onto the pile?

~*~

Fujisaki had to hand it to the Mastermind… The room behind the Monokuma door was really a technological marvel. No wonder he boasted from the beginning that his tech put NASA to shame. This was… This was amazing. Even as the Ultimate Programmer, he wasn’t familiar with everything on the screens and controls in front of him.

But he did understand one thing… This was where the Mastermind had been all this time. As sophisticated as the controls were, he had yet to spot anything that would grant Monokuma true autonomous action. Autonomy that would allow him to speak and react to conversations like he had been all this time…

Naturally, he’d barely just entered the Control Room, so he couldn’t say that with absolute certainty without some experimenting. But this was Fujisaki’s first impression of the intricate setup – the main control panel was practically military-grade. The programmer was used to working with computers, with what he had to work with, but if he had a computer station as sophisticated as this…

Well, simply put, he’d be able to bring a whole lot of his ideas to life.

Tapping his chin, Fujisaki sat in the chair and took a few minutes to get an understanding of what he was looking at. Once he had gotten a layout of the land, he pressed the button labelled “Data Processing Room” – as expected, a sound of something arriving came from the room just outside. Standing up, Fujisaki scurried back out to the surveillance room and found, again, what he’d been expecting.

Monokuma, just standing there.

Fujisaki ran some simple tests, the purpose was to see if Monokuma would respond at all if no one was sitting at the controls… As expected, yet again, the bear was completely devoid of life by his own power. The programmer returned to the control room, quite relieved, and resumed his investigation. He would need to verify to be absolutely certain… but he really, truly believed this room **proved** the existence of a sixteenth person.

They didn’t have to doubt each other if **someone** had to be in this room to run the game… And he was just the person for the job of verifying that theory!

~*~

Mukuro’s investigation was proceeding rather smoothly, despite not finding anything “new” or unexpected yet. She first made a stop by the dojo to confirm that the weapons Togami found in the locker were still there… and they were. Junko’s favorite baseball bat. A blood-soaked cloth. And…

_‘Well, I’ll be~! Junko-chan found that sixth bullet after all!’_ The voice in her head giggled.

“…” Mukuro stared at the revolver. Definitely the one Junko had whipped out when they were delivering the Headmaster to his resting place. Mukuro thought it strange that Junko had only loaded five bullets into the gun when the chamber allowed six…

Made sense she’d save it for the Killing Game, just in case. They were stocked up on weapons in here, but guns were admittedly in short supply.

Mukuro closed the locker and proceeded to the garden next. This portion of her investigation would be pretty brief. As expected, Fukawa’s body was removed, and when she checked the shed, Kirigiri’s was taken care of as well. Only the vinyl sheet was left in there… and Mukuro knew that was where she was going next.

Because the Biology Lab **did** contain a camera…

When she reached her destination, where she expected to be spending the majority of her time, she found Oowada inside.

“D-D-Damn…!” The biker shivered, teeth chattering. “It’s **freezing** in here! This a damn morgue, or what?!”

Mukuro tilted her head at his exclamation.

“Pretty much. Where else did you think we threw the bodies when cases were over?” The incinerator in the garbage disposal room wasn’t nearly big enough for cremations. But it’s not like she blamed Oowada for not knowing about the morgue.

Mondo suddenly growled at that information.

“So… Bro is in here…? You didn’t just dump him down the garbage chute?” He spat.

Mukuro stared at the biker for several long moments before dipping her head a bit.

“… I’m sorry.” Even if she didn’t completely relate to the biker, she knew she’d crossed the line with how casual she had come across. Being flippant with one of the people that had stood up for her in the trial… it made a small knot of guilt churn in her gut. As compensation, she made a confession. “Actually… I really am sorry about Ishimaru, in particular.”

Mondo rolled his eyes and gruffly made his way over to the refrigerators.

“Yeah, I’ll bet…” The biker snorted. “You’re not like Oogami, where the Mastermind strong-armed ya into joining them, right? Even though you didn’t execute him yourself, there’s a reason I kept blaming you for his death, y’know…”

Mukuro frowned and stared at the back of his head somberly.

“I know. But I still regret not doing more for him.” The soldier maintained. “He didn’t survive Monokuma’s attack on his person by himself. I… pulled him away before that spear nearly got him.”

It wasn’t an easy confession to make. She’d… been there. And she hadn’t done any follow-up with the prefect. Mukuro hadn’t even suspected he would edge toward murder soon after.

Mondo had whipped around to face the soldier at this revelation. He stood there with gaping mouth and wide eyes.

“Y-You… **You** did that for Bro…?”

Mukuro dipped her head again to avoid his gaze.

“You still hate me, though, right? I didn’t actually keep him alive… just delayed the inevitable.” It was natural. Ishimaru was his best friend… And she could have saved him.

The soldier really should have been used to being thrown for a loop by this point.

“Are you fucking kidding me? You did more than I did!” Mondo raised a twitching hand in frustration. “Ikusaba, we all make our own choices! Bro wouldn’t have had that choice if he died right there. I’m the one… that should have followed up with him. Not you.”

For the first time, Mukuro truly didn’t know what to say. She’d never been especially close with the biker; they just never had anything to bond over. This… was probably the first time ever that she felt **anything** towards anyone, besides Junko and Naegi-kun. It wasn’t nearly as intense as what she’d felt for the two most important people in her life, and yet…

_‘… So this is what a bond is like…’_ Mukuro mused to herself. It was probably bizarre for someone to think in such a detached manner, but the soldier was still grappling with civilian customs. It wasn’t like ‘bonding’ with your fellow soldiers out on the battlefield; that had a different feel to it. They were in the trenches together, out there. In here…

Well. Then again, considering the circumstances, maybe Oowada could be considered a ‘war buddy’. Despite his initial animosity after Junko ratted her out, Oowada had stuck up for her more than some of the others did. He was at least open to working together. And now they had a better understanding of one another…

… It felt very alien. But Mukuro couldn’t say she completely detested the weird feeling bubbling up inside her. That other part of her would disagree… but Mukuro didn’t care.

After being fooled like she had been… Mukuro believed she needed a serious reevaluation of herself and her life choices. All these dark emotions and thoughts… they weren’t as exciting as they initially had been. But Mukuro couldn’t say she completely disagreed with them, either…

Setting aside her thoughts, Mukuro walked over to the refrigerators herself. She paused as she noticed something out of the corner of her eye… Ah, Kirigiri’s clothes. So this was where Junko dumped them.

“So, hey…” Mondo rubbed the back of his neck as he looked back at the refrigerators. “What’s up with these things? How come only half of them are lit up?”

Mukuro frowned as she inspected Kirigiri’s clothes.

“Sorry, I can’t spoil any more than I already have. Everything you need is in this room, though…”

The biker shuffled over to the table and picked up the pamphlet that was resting on top. He cringed as he read some of the terms in the description of the refrigerators’ functions and features. As he browsed it for what he did understand, he looked back up at Mukuro, who was still occupied.

“Lemme get this straight. Those things light up when they’re in use?”

Mukuro shrugged. Surely confirmation couldn’t hurt? This was Oowada, who wasn’t too thrilled about the academic side of things.

“Pretty much.” She wouldn’t say more than that. Anything else might be flagged as a spoiler…

Mondo stared hard at the refrigerators, counting eight blue lights total. That meant, there was eight bodies stored in here.

Eight…

If there was eight bodies, how come there was sixteen? He knew Naegi and Ikusaba both confirmed that was how many there were… But that meant the sixteenth student had to be Enoshima, who Ikusaba replaced in the beginning. And if all eight bodies in those fridges were his friends that he’d actually seen up until now…

… Where was Enoshima?

~*~

Sayaka massaged her forehead as she felt a slight migraine coming on. The files had been easy enough to browse through, and she learned some things, but by the same token… none of the information helped her guess the password to the hidden room. If she at least had a name for the guy that owned this computer, then maybe she’d have more guesses to make, but…

“Only you here…? That’s a pity.”

Sayaka whipped around to see Celes had entered the room. Her brow knitted together, feeling a little wary of the gambler.

“O-Oh. Celes…” The idol mumbled, feeling herself shrink at the sharp gaze.

Clearly they weren’t on the best of terms still…

“I was hoping to find Naegi-kun here.” The dark-haired girl confessed. “Assuming you’ve still resisted your own **urges** and have kept him alive…”

The idol flinched at the barb. She knew Celes was still going to be bitter over that… Sayaka hoped that Makoto’s continued life would at least put off a confrontation between them, but that seemed like wishful thinking now. Looking back on it… She’d been a fool, thinking that her derailed plan would forever be lost to the sands of time and her own memory.

Of course that damn bear watched every minute of it. He was probably getting real itchy to air that first Body Discovery Announcement… In hindsight, she’s honestly more surprised he kept her secret this long. Probably could have tipped everyone off in the third or fourth incentives, yet he kept it in ‘til there was almost no one left…

“You have every right to be angry…” Sayaka murmured, eyes downcast as her gaze fell to her lap, hands fidgeting anxiously. “I’ve been on your case nonstop, and I attempted murder way before you… But I promise. I’ve changed.”

Celes huffed as she twirled a lock of hair around her finger.

“Venting at you is pointless. Even once we get out of here, you’ll still be Naegi-kun’s ‘favorite’.” Celes narrowed her eyes as the idol looked up with a shell-shocked expression. “Don’t mistake my generosity for forgiveness. You and I are beyond such lofty things. In our greed and drive to pursue our dreams, we forsook Naegi-kun and his feelings. Ikusaba is guilty of the same sin, though for decidedly different reasons… We are all guilty, the three of us. So rather than point fingers, let’s work together to escape… And settle our differences after.”

Sayaka grinned wryly at the gambler’s attitude.

“You really have changed… Trying to get a few brownie points to get a leg up on us?” The idol smirked wilily as the gambler averted her gaze a little. Her intuition said that wasn’t all of it, of course – Celes really was trying to change. But still… “Just so you know, I won’t lose~… I’m used to cutting the competition down to size.”

“Fuck you, too.” Celes snapped waspishly, her persona slipping again. “ **I** never lose when the stakes are high…”

Sayaka giggled, despite the tension in the air.

“Don’t be a sore loser, now~…”

Celes growled, but placed her hands on her hips, deciding to get down to business before the pop idol set her off even more.

“Togami and I found out the Headmaster was related to Kirigiri… Plus, we found our Class Register, which finally told us Kirigiri was the Ultimate Detective.”

Sayaka’s eyes widened at the tidbits of information. This was definitely news to her. She was surprised the gambler was so forthcoming…

“Th-That’s a lot more than I found out…” The bluenette replied. “This computer had some files that elaborated on the Tragedy a bit more… You know, the incident from last year. Apparently, an unknown group called Ultimate Despair was behind it – but no one knows who they are, just that they’re despicable, depraved, and act purely for Despair’s sake…”

“Hence Monokuma’s rants…” Celes dryly quipped. “Not terribly impressive information… I suppose we have a name, at least. Is that all you found out?”

Sayaka offered an apologetic smile.

“There was some personal files on here, but nothing pertinent. I couldn’t find out who lived here.”

The gambler took a look around the room shrewdly. Naturally, she noticed the suspicious-looking wall.

“My guess is that this was the Headmaster’s bedroom…” Celes surmised. “His name was Jin Kirigiri.”

It took a few moments for Sayaka to process that. It’s not like Celes outright declared her intent with that hint. But then she realized…

“Well, if they were related… maybe…” The idol frowned before turning back and inputting her latest guess into the password entry screen. It didn’t take long for results to happen. The computer accepted that password, and the wall slid open, revealing the hidden room within. She turned back to the gambler, smiling uncertainly at her. “Th-Thanks, Celes…”

Celes shrugged uncaringly.

“Anything to move the investigation along…”

The two of them entered the hidden room moments later, finding it rather Spartan compared to the one that it was adjacent to. There was a small desk with drawers, a dresser with a framed portrait on top, and a cheerfully wrapped gift box sitting on a small table. Obviously, that was the first thing they approached.

“I suppose we should check what’s inside…” Celes deadpanned as they continued staring at it, with neither of them budging.

“I-Is it safe, though…?” Sayaka wondered. “I have a bad feeling about it…”

Celes shrugged nonchalantly.

“Obviously, I feel the same way… But it’s not like we have the option to **not** open it…” They couldn’t afford to hesitate, and they both knew it.

“Y-Yeah, true…” Sayaka mumbled, hesitantly gripping the lid of the box. Slowly, carefully, she removed the lid. Light spilled into the box, and…

Sayaka let out a shrill scream. Celes, while retaining **some** of her composure, still couldn’t deny that she was disturbed to find the remains of a human skeleton inside… As much as she had steeled her nerves, no one could have prepared themselves to discover **that** under the cheerful wrapping…

It took several minutes before they both managed to calm down. Celes schooled her features into a neutral mask again.

“So… I suspect this is the Headmaster himself…”

Sayaka stared at Celes with wide, disbelieving eyes.

“Y-You know this how…?”

“Think about it. Between Alter Ego and Monokuma’s information, there’s no one else it **could** be. The school became locked down with the sixteen of us and the Headmaster… and ever since, no one else set foot in this academy since the Killing Game began; what’s more, only us students were left **alive** by the time Monokuma got things started. The Headmaster… was the first to fall victim to the Mastermind.”

Sayaka could understand the logic, but even so… it was still hard to swallow, especially when she snuck glances at the skeletal remains. She felt green, even though she’d seen dead bodies of her classmates before… had thought **Makoto** had died, before…

Thank God he was still alive…

Celes took the time to, grudgingly, search the box. If there was a clue left hidden in there, they couldn’t afford to let it go undiscovered… Sayaka wasn’t about to check, so it had to be her. She was glad that she checked… because there was a DVD marked “Class 78 Interview Tapes” toward the bottom of the box… She’d have to give it a watch later, in the A/V room.

Sayaka, meanwhile, had edged away from the box and gone to examine the desk. She found work-related documents and files in the drawers, except for the bottom one… which had an e-handbook marked for “emergency use”. She’d have to try it out with the lockers. After all, the Headmaster had owned it, so that meant it likely acted as another master key…

Celes confirmed the dresser was also just filled with work-related documents. That left only one other thing in the room… the framed picture.

“K-K-Kirigiri…” Sayaka mumbled in anguish. It was a faded picture, but the child depicted in the father’s arms was unmistakable.

“So they were parent and child…” Celes held a knuckle over her mouth thoughtfully. “Kirigiri really did have amnesia. If she didn’t, she would have realized right away why she wished to find him.”

Sayaka’s eyes watered just thinking about it. Even though they’d never know the circumstances now… It still hurt to know that Kirigiri had so desperately wanted to find this man… and he was already dead from the moment they met up in the entrance hall on the first day.

The Mastermind… truly was despicable…

~*~

She and Celes had split up soon after that. Celes was going to check out the “interviews”, while Sayaka would check out the lockers. They both agreed to meet up at the Class Trial.

The idol returned to the locker room, and immediately began her investigation with the intact locker on the left. And right away, she had found items of interest.

“Guess the owner was a bit of a hoarder…” Sayaka smiled wryly. She herself would go nuts if she had a locker packed like this… she’d never be able to find anything.

As she got a closer look, her brow furrowed in confusion. A crystal ball… tarot cards… These were things used in fortunetelling. But… **he** couldn’t have been the owner of the locker, could he…?

Sayaka picked up one of the many notebooks and textbooks, which was crazy dusty and chock full of notes. She froze when she saw the owner’s name scribbled on the cover.

… It was indeed Yasuhiro Hagakure.

The idol recalled that Makoto had once told her Hagakure revealed he’d been held back several times… But did that mean he attended classes here before they did…? Sayaka instinctually wrapped her fingers around the pendant she wore around her neck. She frowned thoughtfully.

So it wasn’t just her and Makoto… How widespread was the memory loss? How far back did it go…? Sayaka knew she was crazy for immediately jumping to that conclusion, but she still firmly believed that the pendant was proof of a life erased from her memory… And if that was true… For all she knew…

The idol shook her head. There was no use just speculating. She should check the other lockers, too. To confirm her hunch. Most of the intact lockers were empty, but there was one more that contained something in it… A single item – a notebook. As she flipped through it, certain phrases stuck out to her, and she homed in on that entry.

“Th-This is Kirigiri’s…” Sayaka realized. The writer called the Headmaster her father, and talked about the academy being converted into a shelter to combat the Tragedy plaguing the world. Clearly, Kirigiri wasn’t all for it, but her father had asked her to be a part of the project, too. Needless to say, her hunch was all but confirmed with this notebook – Hagakure’s locker could have been passed off as his previous high school years. But this was further proof… they had forgotten things that they shouldn’t have…

As Sayaka flipped to the last pages, she saw the handwriting change from the methodical format Kirigiri used for the rest of the notebook. This last entry had been written in a hurry...

“Despairs are among us, that’s why we were left alive… There are two of them.”

~*~

“H-Huh…? Fujisaki?” Makoto asked as he reached the fourth floor. He’d gotten distracted, investigating his own room as well as the trash disposal room, just to make sure they weren’t missing any clues in there. He’d bumped into Fujisaki, who had just left the Data Processing Room, apparently in a hurry.

“N-Naegi!” The programmer cried, a bit excited with what he’d confirmed, examining that control room… But before he could say anything, the door closed and a lock engaging could be heard. “H-Huh?!”

The programmer pried at the handle he had just let go of, but to no avail. It wouldn’t open again. Makoto rubbed his chin in thought.

“Did the Mastermind…?” He was about to voice his thoughts, but Monokuma’s sudden appearance drowned them out.

“Yeesh, Fujisaki! I thought you’d never leave! You computer nerds sure love to take your sweet time…”

Fujisaki hugged himself and shivered.

“Wh-Why…? Why did you lock it…?!”

Monokuma rubbed the back of his head bashfully.

“’Cause it’s sealed off now, of course~! An academy without its mascot running around is just **terrible** , y’know? I let ya have a peek behind the curtain, but now I gotta get back to work! Sooo… Vamoose!” The bear paused in his departure. “… Oh yeah. Since you guys have been hard at work, makin’ good progress, I’m gonna give you all a hint! Ain’t I a sweetheart~? Upupu… anyone who wants their hint should swing by the gym riiight away! If you’ll excuse me, I gotta pass that along to your pals!”

The bear then departed for reals. Makoto and Chihiro traded looks. The programmer hung his head in shame.

“I’m so sorry…If I’d stayed in there, m-maybe we could have fought back…”

Makoto’s brow furrowed.

“How do you figure that…?” The Mastermind seemed prepared for most things, so it couldn’t have been that easy…

“W-Well, someone has to be in that control room for Monokuma to operate!” Fujisaki supplied helpfully. “There’s a lot of different controls and settings… but essentially, someone **has** to be in there for any of them to work! Th-There’s not really any autonomy options…”

Understanding lit up Makoto’s eyes.

“S-So, somebody’s in there right now…” The luckster surmised. Fujisaki nodded sadly.

“There was a hatch I couldn’t open… I-I guess they were hiding in there…”

Makoto patted Chihiro’s head consolingly.

“It’ll be alright! We still have a chance to solve all the mysteries… So… Don’t get down on yourself! You did great, Fujisaki!”

The programmer smiled shakily before running off. Makoto supposed swinging by the gym should be his priority. As much as he wanted to stop by the Headmaster Office and Biology Lab, these hints sounded like they were tailored for each individual. And if they were like pieces to a jigsaw puzzle, well... He didn’t want his piece to be the only one missing. So it was with a heavy sigh he returned to the first level to reach the gym.

When he entered inside, Monokuma was already there,

“Come one, com all! I have your final hint here!” The bear greeted the luckster eccentrically. “The envelope at your feet… That is where you will find it!”

_‘Envelope…? Does he mean this?’_ Makoto wondered, staring down at the item. Monokuma giggled excitedly.

“Upupu… Just so you know, I won’t be fielding aaany questions regarding the contents of that envelope…”

Makoto scratched his head in confusion.

“Wh-What? Why?”

“Don’t mind me, don’t mind me!” Monokuma rubbed the back of his head bashfully.

The luckster frowned suspiciously, but picked the envelope up anyway. He peeked inside…

Another photo. But this time… everyone was in it but him. Even Enoshima, who he hadn’t met yet… All fifteen other students were there.

Was their meeting in the entrance hall… **not** the first time they had met?

~*~

Mukuro narrowed her eyes before sliding the refrigerator shut with a sense of finality. Kirigiri had been the last. With Oowada’s help, she had confirmed the bodies stored in the Biology Lab were: Fukawa, Hagakure, Asahina, Ishimaru, Yamada, Kuwata, Oogami, and Kirigiri. She’d checked out Fukawa’s corpse and confirmed that had been the one used as the fake body in the garden… But it was shortly after that Oowada had to leave to receive Junko’s “final hint”.

Mukuro, of course, had no need to go. Junko wouldn’t have given her anything, anyway.

More importantly, her investigation of Kirigiri’s clothes and body had helped her better understand the events that transpired. The bullet hole had indeed been the cause of death… Though the blood had been cleaned up, Kirigiri must have bled extensively. It was the only explanation for the trail of blood that went into the shed… And Junko never missed a fatal shot like **this** … Kirigiri had been blindsided.

And when she tried to run… Junko pulverized her with the bat. The wounds on Kirigiri’s head were brutal, but not enough to be fatal.

Of course Junko did leave out a vital detail… Or more accurately, she covered it up because it wasn’t related to Kirigiri’s body anyway. Mukuro was surprised nonetheless because it was a detail the others had missed.

Or maybe because the Monokuma File never brought it up, they disregarded it or brushed it aside to think about later… Whatever the case, the suit Kirigiri was forced into post-mortem had a tear in the left arm.

And there was a blood splatter on Kirigiri’s clothes not connected with the gunshot… Despite being cornered, Kirigiri **had** wounded her attacker. She **must** have taken the survival knife from Naegi-kun’s room… there was no other blade Kirigiri had access to. The pickaxe wouldn’t have left a tear as elongated as that in Junko’s suit. It was little wonder Junko stabbed Kirigiri with the knife post-mortem… She must have been **pissed**.

Also little wonder the trial was rushed… Mukuro had **no** wounds, even to this day. Sakura roughed her up, but she was not stabbed, shot, or burned. No scars for Junko to exploit.

But Junko had a scar now… The soldier could smell the blood in the water.

It wouldn’t be long until Mukuro could sink her teeth into the main course…

"Upupu~..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear friends... today is the day the clown cried... And he cries not for the passing of one story, but for the death of a dream~ A dream that the story could keep going forever and ever... 
> 
> But alas, we have reached Chapter 6. And as we all know~ 6 is where everything comes to a close in a Danganronpa story...
> 
> ... Well, maybe not EVERYTHING.. Danganronpa has this knack for loose ends. And this story will be no different~ Because the true story is a duology - and I wouldn't want Class 77 missing out on all the festivities...
> 
> Trial, epilogue, and bonus content. Just three chapters left. Who's ready for the home stretch? :3 
> 
> More importantly... Who's ready for World War 3 over sweet, adorable Naegi-kun? He's certainly not. n_____n
> 
> *plays Amazing Grace over the kazoo* 
> 
> ... Well, that was fun. Who's for Chinese? :D


	28. Chapter 6, Part 2: The Ultimate Unluckster, or: How I Learned to Stop Despairing and Embrace the End

_Kirigiri clutched the survival knife as she ran, blood pumping through her veins. She knew that she was running purely off of hunches at this stage… But her instincts had rarely failed her, and something was clearly amiss._

_Togami, Celes, Oowada, and Fujisaki were all in the gymnasium, dismantling Monokuma. That meant the Mastermind was preoccupied with other business… Such as abducting Naegi, drugging Maizono, and possibly performing a murder…_

_Kirigiri knew that she should have involved the others in the search. They had every right to know… But Togami’s paranoia was still fresh in her mind. If she spent several minutes trying to explain the situation, and if they still didn’t believe her, Kirigiri was going to have wasted precious seconds that would have likely brought Naegi closer to death…_

_She was not going to lose him. The thought crossed her mind to ‘let’ him die, to get the Mastermind to make a mistake and get backed into a corner… But no. Her conscience wouldn’t allow it. Naegi was the heart of their group; even in the best case scenario, where they escaped, the loss would be too great if he died here. They would never forgive her for tossing him away like that… Moreover… Naegi was her friend. They had disagreed on Ikusaba, about giving her a chance, and it had become her biggest regret since waking up in this academy…_

_Because Naegi was right about Ikusaba. Yes, she hadn’t been honest from the beginning, hadn’t been on their side, yet Naegi had won her over. That key… tipped the balance in their favor. Monokuma’s rules couldn’t stop them now. And Ikusaba had made it all possible…_

_… But maybe that was why the Mastermind was making a move. Because they sidestepped the rules, now he was forced to do the same to keep them in check…_

_Kirigiri wouldn’t allow it. She didn’t know where the Mastermind had gone with Naegi… but given the trend of past murders, every time a new floor opened up, it was used in some way. Therefore, the fifth floor was the best place to start her search. She had no reason to believe that the Mastermind would follow tradition… But her instincts drove her on._

_She arrived in the garden breathlessly. Nothing… was in view… The mysterious girl thought for sure she would find something here. Her instincts told her to look harder… so she did._

_The shed was open._

_Kirigiri warily made her way over, clutching the knife cautiously at her side. No sounds could be heard from within, but that didn’t mean it was empty. If this was going to be a game of cat and mouse, she had to tread carefully. The Mastermind had people such as Ikusaba working for them; had even cowed Oogami into cooperating with their plans… That didn’t make the Mastermind a physical threat – though Kirigiri had to at least consider the possibility – but it did mean they were clever and tactical enough to anticipate someone might cotton onto whatever they were scheming… She would not be caught off-guard here._

_Sweat dripping from her brow… Kirigiri took the plunge. She poked her head into the shed…_

_.. And her heart dropped into her stomach at seeing the body on the floor._

_“ **Naegi** …!” The cry escaped her throat before she could contain it. The knife clattered to the floor as she immediately rushed to the luckster’s side. _

_His chest wasn’t moving. There were no external injuries, but he wasn’t **breathing**._

_Kirigiri’s heart turned to ice before she even attempted to feel for a pulse… Naegi was dead. She had feared that she would be too late, but this… to look upon her failure. To realize that from the moment she found Maizono, she had no chance of redeeming her past mistakes regarding the luckster…_

_Why did she have to be too late? Why did it feel like she was always too late…? Not just Naegi, not just Oogami… but all the murders that had taken place here. The knot in her stomach became a baseball, the more she thought about it. She was skilled and helpful when it came to investigations, but when it came to actually saving people… keeping them alive…_

_She was always too late. And now she had failed to protect the one person that she had deemed most trustworthy of all… Her friend. Gone._

_Taking a shuddering breath, Kirigiri steeled her nerves. Yet again… she would investigate. Because she had to. Because… the dead deserved justice. Naegi’s killer… would not get away with this._

_Kirigiri narrowed her eyes as she examined the hand she had lifted up to feel for a pulse. The nails… were a little different from Naegi’s usual length._

_Not **just** the hand. Naegi’s whole body… From the softer curves of the hips, to the clearly feminine chest… to even the face, which looked unnaturally stiff. Slowly, Kirigiri reached for that face…_

_… And felt material that was not human flesh. A mask…?_

_Kirigiri slowly peeled it off. And she found… she found…_

_“Fukawa…” The mysterious girl murmured. Her fingers curled into a fist, bunching up the mask in her grip._

_Relief. She had never felt so much relief before… Fukawa’s death had still been regrettable, but Naegi was **alive**. Kirigiri was sure of it. She just had to pick up the trail again. The garden was suspicious, yes, but there were other areas that the Mastermind was likely making preparations in… The fake death in the shed couldn’t have been all there was to this._

_Kirigiri turned to move…_

_Bang!_

_Her bloodied gloved hand shook as she looked down at it from where she cradled her fresh wound in her side. Her eyes trailed to the doorway, where a person in a suit and mask stood, gun still pointed at her._

_Kirigiri waited, staring unflinchingly despite the clear danger she was in. They stood at that impasse for what seemed like an eternity… Then the figure tossed aside the gun in a huff._

_“You just **couldn’t** wait for tomorrow, could ya…? Were you the type of kid to open up her Christmas presents early? You sure didn’t seem like the type… Then again, you probably never cared either way with that robot personality…”_

_Kirigiri stilled at that voice. It sounded familiar… But she didn’t bother to question it. Not now. She had to get out of there and treat her wound… The blood was just gushing out, and she could feel lightheadedness coming on. She was in no state to try and subdue her attacker. She had to run._

_The mysterious girl wobbly rose to her feet, picked up the knife, and moved to charge her assailant… It was a reckless move, but Kyoko was desperate. If she could just throw them off-balance… Alas, it was not meant to be._

_The attacker side-stepped Kyoko like it was no big deal._

_“ **Hey**! Where do you think **you’re** going?!” The Mastermind obnoxiously called after her, even as she kept running. She could not give in and confront them… Her life was ebbing away. Every second counted. _

_Kyoko felt cold steel smash into the back of her head, and she collapsed not too far from the shed. The cold, brutal sensations occurred again and again as the attacker swung the baseball bat down on her. Kyoko felt… weak…_

_She felt scared._

_Eventually, the attacker stopped obliterating the backside of her head and casually strode into her hazy view again. They had the bat tapping the backside of their neck threateningly as they stared down at Kyoko._

_“Running off after you ruined the surprise…? Just what kind of manners did daddy teach you? … Oops. That’s right~ Daddy abandoned you~! Silly me.”_

_Kyoko went very still as the attacker… a woman, Kyoko could tell from the feminine tone… she went and dug up **that** old wound…_

_… Were her memories coming back?_

_“Don’t… you dare… talk about that…!” Kyoko snarled, glaring coldly at the assailant._

_The masked woman tapped the baseball bat against her palm._

_“Not that I doubt you, Kirigiri-san, but… How do ya plan to enforce that while looking like shit~? You’re really… **HEY**!” _

_All it took was a few seconds to close the gap between them. Kyoko was running on adrenaline by this point, her side burning and her head was pounding… But she still managed to get up and land a hit on her attacker. The masked woman had attempted to dodge at the last moment, but it was too late – Kyoko slashed at her arm and left a huge, ugly gash. The masked woman trembled furiously, even as Kyoko stumbled back uneasily. Blood seeped from the fresh wound and stained the suit._

_“You’re not… getting away with this…” Kyoko told her enemy in no uncertain terms._

_The masked woman snarled._

_“ **God** , **you piss me off** …! Screw this! The Detective **dies**!” She threw a childish tantrum… and smashed the baseball bat into Kirigiri’s head again as she turned to flee. Kyoko collapsed unceremoniously and dropped the knife again. The assailant cradled her arm for a moment before carelessly tossing the bat aside and reaching down towards Kirigiri. “C’mere! You’re gonna sit in the **corner** and think about **the shit you just pulled**!!!”_

_Cruelly, the masked woman hurled Kyoko back into the shed, uncaring of how her victim landed. Panting, she stomped over to the shed… and slammed the door. Kyoko’s body was on fire by this point with every movement she made, every breath she took, but she still tried to escape. The masked woman kept them from happening by holding the door handle in place; eventually, Kyoko weakly slid against the door and let go of the handle. Soon, the world got colder… darker…_

‘I’m… really going to die…’ _Kyoko thought to herself with mixed emotions. She never believed it would end like this…_

_Not just her death. But her memories… her memories were returning. She remembered… everything. Hope’s Peak, being selected as the Ultimate Detective, the two years she spent with her class, the Tragedy, the shelter project…_

_Meeting her father again…_

_She never would know what happened to him after the game had started. If he was alive, or if Ultimate Despair had killed him… The evidence… The evidence suggested…_

_But she hadn’t found a body yet… so…_

_And Naegi… she hadn’t been able to save him. It was her fault the Mastermind targeted him. If he hadn’t helped her bend the rules… the Mastermind might not have abducted him. She might have even survived, gone on to escape with the others… If she had just been a little more patient… a little more careful…_

_She was so cold. Kyoko shivered, having never felt this cold before._

_So this was death…_

_Kyoko considered leaving behind further clues for the others to find, but logic stopped her from trying. If she left a final message in blood, the Mastermind would just erase it. She didn’t have the strength to crawl over to Fukawa’s body and destroy that mask… And even if she had tried to do so, who was to say the Mastermind didn’t have spares or a backup plan?_

_Injuring the Mastermind… would have to do. She had faith the others would uncover the truth, as they always did. Naegi was still alive… just captured. If it came down to it, Ikusaba would save him. Kyoko had faith in that now._

_Kyoko slowly started to close her eyes, mustering a small, sad smile._

‘Just when we were all starting to get along again… And I never got to thank Naegi… for everything…’ _Kyoko’s consciousness began to fade in and out._ ‘I just wish… I could have spent more time with everyone…’

_Junko didn’t have to wait vigilantly for very long. Kyoko bled out in minutes._

~*~

The picture… had all of his classmates together. Everyone except him. It looked to be in the evening at sunset, based on the sun pouring in from the windows that couldn’t be seen from the shot; and it looked to be a normal classroom. No childish scribbles on the chalkboard. Everyone looked just so… happy. Like they had never been put in the Killing Game. Like they were the best of friends – even the reserved Fukawa and Togami.

Makoto puzzled over it for several minutes. Monokuma was actually letting him keep this one, so he had more time to examine and think about what all these pictures meant. He had one idea, but he wanted to find the others to confirm his hunch.

Sayaka seemed to have a small fond smile as she traced her finger over the picture she was given; she looked up when Makoto came walking up to her, in the entrance hall.

“I’m guessing you got a picture, too?”

“Yeah…” Makoto smiled back at her. “Everyone in it but you?”

Sayaka giggled.

“Yep.”

It was strange how both of them were so easy to accept that they weren’t in their own pictures… But perhaps that was because this was far from the strangest thing they had encountered since coming here. Having encountered similar pictures before, they weren’t quite out of their depth… just confused.

“Wanna see mine?” Makoto offered, and he was offered hers in return. Looking at her photo, he couldn’t help feeling the same friendly vibes emitting from it. In a way, hers was plenty similar to his. The picture was taken at sunset… They were all outside and under a tree. and somewhat unsurprisingly, he was toward the middle of the group, Ishimaru to his left and saluting with a giant grin, and Kuwata to his right with his arm around the Luckster’s shoulders, the baseball star grinning madly as well, as if they were best friends. To the back of Makoto was Sakura, arms crossed and smiling proudly. Celes was to her immediate right, and Junko and Mukuro were to her immediate left.

Weird how Junko’s face was covered up by Taka’s salute again. It happened in his picture, too. Though unlike in his picture, Mukuro was looking away from the camera somewhat, as if disinterested.

Yamada, Oowada, Fukawa, and Hagakure were scattered on Ishimaru’s other side, while Togami, Asahina, Kirigiri and Fujisaki were scattered on Kuwata’s other side. Even the more reserved classmates seemed like they were happy to be in that photo; like they were all friends, and they weren’t just doing this for some yearbook thing.

Something else Makoto noticed about his and Sayaka’s photos was that a lot of the students seemed to be in a brown school uniform… including him, and including Mondo, who didn’t seem the type to wear uniforms. Celes and Leon, unsurprisingly, stood out in the clothes he’d seen them wearing since coming to this academy, but again, that seemed just like them. Leon wanted to be a rockstar, and Celes… well, she had her own fashion sense. She wasn’t the type to let others dictate what she wore – that was the impression Makoto got, anyway.

“Do you think… Monokuma messed with our memories?” Sayaka wondered, and Makoto had to pause to think about that. Because while the others would say to assume they were forged, to him, these looked too authentic to be faked.

You couldn’t Photoshop camaraderie such as this… They all seemed to be in-character, too.

“I’ve been wondering about that, too…” Makoto murmured.

~*~

Time ran out, as it always did. As was tradition, they met up at the red doors and waited to board the elevator. Seven of them were there, this time… A fact that boosted morale, however marginally. This would be the trial that would avenge Kirigiri. And… it would be the trial that would end everything, once and for all.

Though they all seemed lost in their own thoughts, Togami and Oowada seemed a little more on-edge… Why was that?

“Upupu… The cast has all assembled… Every last pitiful, downtrodden one of you~...” Monokuma giggled as he appeared. “So let’s get crackin’! The final Class Trial, marinated in a pitch-black sauce of unparalleled despair! **Climb** to the **max**!”

Makoto glared with determination.

“Y-Yeah… But this time, we’re doing it **fairly**!”

Monokuma held up a claw threateningly.

“’This time’?! I don’t need your slander! If there was a Fairness World Championship, I’d take the gold – no doubt about it! I always hit above the belt! I’ll win this thing fair and square! And I’ll prove to all of you viewers… that **Despair** is stronger than **Hope** …”

Togami growled lowly.

“Enough of your performances! Just start already.”

“You got it, homie.” Monokuma giggled again. “Let’s get this show on the road~! I’ll be waiting downstairs… so no runnin’! Daaaaahahaha!”

Cackling as he always did, Monokuma vanished. Togami lifted his chin imperiously.

“Very well. I’ll put an end to this – and soon…” The heir was the first to board the elevator.

Mondo cracked his knuckles threateningly.

“We’ll see about that…” He growled ominously, and boarded next. Fujisaki trailed after him, appearing nervous.

Celes sighed, hands on her hips.

“I think I know what they’re worked up about… And they’re idiots.” She cupped her hands under her chin and beamed at Naegi. “Never fear, I will cut them down to size if they do, indeed, lash out at you. I must protect my investments…”

Giving that assurance, Celes boarded the elevator as well. Mukuro stared down at the floor with an unreadable expression.

“So this is where it finally ends…” Muttering that cryptic remark, the soldier boarded the elevator as well.

Sayaka and Makoto shared a look.

“Th-They’re all acting strange, don’t you think?” The idol hugged herself, shivering.

Makoto rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“It’s gotta be the photos… Well, at least for some of them.” The luckster corrected himself, not really sure why Mukuro especially concerned him. She’d been acting strange since saving him… Not all of it was bad, just… he couldn’t bring himself to be happy or confident in all the changes he was seeing in his friend.

It was really ominous, how focused she had become…

“It’ll be okay.” Sayaka gave her luckster the most reassuring smile she could muster. “We’re… we’re ready for this! We’ve been working so hard to finally reach this point… Not just for ourselves, but everyone that was sacrificed… We can’t lose!”

Makoto shook off the unease he felt and nodded firmly.

“Y-You’re right… This is for everyone’s sake…! We’re getting out of here!” With that bold, hope-filled declaration, they were the last to board the elevator…

~*~

“Since this is the final Class Trial, some **special rules** are in effect.” Monokuma reminded everyone, once they’d taken their places in the trial room. Mukuro was back with them, though she was now in a blouse and skirt combo, with a combat vest on. “I’ll start things off by explaining these rules. If **you guys** manage to identify Kyoko Kirigiri’s murderer, as well as solve all the school’s mysteries… then you win! But if you can’t… then I win! Naturally, the loser has a thrillingly exciting, heart-poundingly awesome **punishment** awaiting them!”

“And if you lose, that means **you’ll** be executed, right?” Mukuro asked for concrete confirmation.

“Yup, sure does!”

Mukuro merely grinned darkly at that answer, remaining quiet thereafter. Makoto frowned in worry at that expression. That awful feeling was back… And Monokuma wasn’t helping with how he tilted his head curiously at the soldier’s state.

Just what the hell was going on…?

Mondo scowled as he crossed his arms.

“There’s something I want to know even more than that…”

“Oho, you’re looking unusually serious. You got a tummyache?” The bear taunted.

“Is the Mastermind… only **one person**?” The biker asked, not rising to the bear’s bait. Monokuma hummed in seeming confusion, but Mondo went on. “I’ve got it all figured out… Every last one of you’s in cahoots with the Mastermind! You’re all pullin’ the wool over my eyes! Eh?! Aren’tcha?! I even got proof!”

Togami crossed his arms, glaring coldly at the biker.

“Fancy that, I have proof of that, as well. Proof that everyone here is conspiring against me…”

“H-Huh?” Fujisaki stuttered. “How can the three of us… have the same proof…?”

That shocked Mondo out of his anger for a moment.

“What?! You, too, Fujisaki?!”

Celes groaned as she massaged her temple in irritation.

“Could you dunderheads just shut up already…? In case you forgot, **all** of us received a hint, remember? We each received a photo.”

Mondo, Byakuya, and Chihiro all stared at the gambler in shock. In truth, they had written off Monokuma’s announcement once they had seen their respective photos… If the other fifteen students were working together, then it made it easier to keep a secret, even for honest or meek people like Naegi and Fujisaki…

But Celes had implied that she had a photo, as well…

“Celes is right.” Makoto curled his hand into a fist in determination. “See for yourselves!”

As he and Sayaka both revealed their photos, Fujisaki blinked in confusion.

“W-Wait…” He pointed at the photos. “Th-That can’t be right! I’m in both of those…!”

“Me, too…” Mondo rubbed the back of his neck as he produced his picture. “It doesn’t make sense, ‘cause I’m the only one not in the photo I have…”

Mondo’s picture seemed to be taken at a go-cart track. Most of them were standing outside, watching Kuwata, Hagakure, Asahina, and Yamada zip around on the track. Togami was leaning on a railing casually, with Fukawa a little off to his side; Ishimaru looked to be getting in a go-cart of his own; Oogami seemed to be holding a conversation with Fujisaki; Enoshima was walking behind Naegi and Maizono as they enjoyed some ice cream; and Kirigiri, Celes, and Ikusaba were off on the other side track, observing the racers.

“Oh! I should probably throw mine out there, too.” Fujisaki mumbled as he produced his. The setting this time was in some computer lab, though it wasn’t the A/V room, as windows could clearly be seen, daylight streaming in. Most of them were focused on the computers in front of them, but some, like Maizono and Hagakure, were smiling back at the photo-taker. Of course, Fujisaki was missing from the photo.

Togami huffed in exasperation, clearly upset he’d been caught in a trap set by Monokuma yet again.

“Here’s mine…” The heir bitingly remarked, revealing his photo. It had been a day at the pool on the second floor of the academy, the windows all open and shutter-free– Maizono and Kirigiri were sitting in the foreground, the idol smiling at the camera; Naegi was waving some feet away from them; Celes and Fukawa were over by the locker on the far end; Asahina was sitting in the lifeguard’s seat, blowing a whistle; Kuwata splashed Enoshima in the face, and Ikusaba was staring at a waterproof watch not too far away, and Fujisaki wasn’t too far from her; Oowada and Ishimaru seemed to be having a race, with the biker giving the prefect a head-start; and Yamada was punched out of the water by Oogami, the otaku crying out as he was in free fall and Hagakure watched from a distance.

“While we’re at it, this is the picture I was given…” Celes remarked as she revealed hers. It seemed that everyone but her was setting up a stage, like a play was going to be performed. Well, Togami looked like he was directing more than doing any of the physical labor, but they weren’t really paying attention to the camera. Naegi and Maizono were carrying buckets of paint and other equipment; Yamada, Hagakure, Oowada, Ishimaru, Oogami, and Asahina were doing a lot of the heavy-lifting, while Enoshima and Ikusaba were setting up some background drop piece, their backs turned to the camera. Like Togami, Fukawa seemed to be overseeing the construction process, as she stood over Fujisaki and was criticizing him about… something.

The point was, Celes was missing from her picture, too.

Mondo frowned at the implications.

“So we each got a photo? You guys **ain’t** working together with that bastard…?”

Celes deadpanned at the biker.

“Unless you want to believe your ‘Bro’ was working with us… Then, yes, that’s what that means.” That clammed Oowada right up.

“It’s **a trap set by the Mastermind** to trick us into thinking everyone else is conspiring against us!” Makoto explained heatedly. Monokuma cocked his head.

“Hoh? I set a trap? And what basis do you have for making such a disrespectful claim?!”

Sayaka was the one to explain for Makoto.

“The recipient of each picture is the only one who doesn’t appear in their picture… I was missing from mine, Makoto was missing from his, Oowada was missing from his, and so on and so forth…”

“It’s because of all these pictures that you thought we were all enemies…” The Luckster reiterated Sayaka’s point.

“Upupu… You figured it out?” Monokuma giggled. Togami glared at the bear disdainfully.

“I should have figured this was the case… Hint? Give me a break…”

Makoto rubbed his chin in thought. No. There had to be more to those pictures… It’s just that the initial motive for in-fighting had them focusing on that, rather than the fact these pictures **were not forged**. But because they’d worked it out to this level, people were going to doubt their legitimacy.

“You must’ve had a lot of fucking time on your hands, puttin’ us all in matching uniforms and shit!” Mondo growled, proving the luckster right.

“Hmm? Fake?” Monokuma laughed. “Nope, nope—they’re **the real deal**.”

“Wh-What are you talking about?! There’s no way they’re real!” Fujisaki floundered. “I don’t remember being in any of those photos!”

Mondo nodded in agreement.

“No doubt about it, **those pictures are fake**!”

“Are you really sure about that…?” Makoto asked skeptically, causing the biker to look at him dumbfoundedly. “I don’t remember being in those pictures, either… but does that really mean… we can just dismiss them as being fake?”

For the first time, Mukuro spoke up.

“What are you saying…?”

“I’m saying… there might be another, incomprehensible reason we don’t remember being in those photos… All of us **have lost our memories** … Wouldn’t that explain it?”

“ **Are you shitting me?!** ” Mondo raged. “You’re saying we all have **fucking amnesia**?! Even for this batshit crazy crap, that’s a stretch!”

Celes placed her hands on her hips.

“Unfortunately, Naegi-kun speaks the truth. It’s not just those photos…” The gambler showed them all the DVD, which contained the Emergency Interviews. “This DVD has videos showing each of us being interviewed by the academy’s Headmaster.”

“When you say each of us…” Fujisaki trailed off in disbelief.

“Of course, that includes you, Fujisaki.” The gambler replied glibly.

“I was never interviewed for anything!” Mondo gritted his teeth in frustration, raising a twitching hand. Mukuro shook her head.

“No, she’s telling the truth. It’s all right there on that DVD. Your interview with the Headmaster.”

Mondo stared in wide-eyed, gaping mouthed shock.

“You’re serious?! This isn’t a fucking joke?!”

“None of you remember being interviewed, do you?” The gambler pressed.

“M-Maybe I don’t… But just ‘cause I don’t remember… you expect me to believe that we have amnesia?!” Mondo roared.

“Unless you have grounds for a rebuttal, we have no choice but to believe…” Togami hissed. He then clenched a fist and faced the gambler. “More importantly, there’s something else I’d like to know… What was discussed in those interviews?”

“The Headmaster asked us each a question: **‘Are you willing to spend the rest of your life in this academy?’** ” Celes answered. Makoto widened his eyes.

“He asked us that?!”

“And? How did we respond?” Togami asked tensely.

“Obviously, we said no!” Mondo growled.

Celes shook her head solemnly.

“No… We all **agreed** … I, in my own body and mind, agreed to spend the rest of my life in this academy. And so did all of you.”

“Wh-Why?! Why… would we agree to that?!” Fujisaki blurted out.

“I don’t know, either…” Celes bitterly snapped back. “Like I said, I don’t remember!”

Makoto took a deep breath and nodded. He wished he’d seen those interviews for himself… but he trusted Celes. If she said they were all interviewed, then…

“It’s true… Not a single one of us remembers.” Next to him, Sayaka nodded faintly in agreement. The photos, the interviews, the notebooks she found in the lockers, and the pendant… All of them pointed to the undeniable truth that memories were stolen from them.

But just how many…? How much of their lives were erased?

Mondo shook his head firmly.

“I just… can’t swallow the fact we all have **amnesia** …!”

“We have no choice but to accept it, no matter how ludicrous it sounds.” Togami replied coldly.

“Yup, yup!” Monokuma confirmed. “You’re all one big, happy family of amnesiacs!”

“And it’s not ordinary amnesia, either,” Makoto claimed. “You **stole our memories from us**!”

“Whoopsie~! I guess the cat’s outta the bag!” Monokuma giggled bashfully.

“Of course, there’s no way all of us losing our memories was one big coincidence…” Celes rolled her eyes.

“How did you even steal our memories in the first place?!” Sayaka demanded.

Monokuma shook his head side-to-side.

“ **How** the memories were taken doesn’t matter here… The fact remains you all worked out you’re a bunch of amnesiacs, so I’ll chalk it up as a few points to you~! But the game’s still going…” The bear giggled gleefully.

“There has to be some connection to the memories that you stole…” Sayaka murmured. “You couldn’t have just stolen our memories of those pictures and the interviews… That wouldn’t make sense. You removed a lot more than that, didn’t you?”

“Hmm~… I wonder!” Monokuma ‘speculated’. “It all has to do with those incentives you were given! But for now… my lips are sealed! ‘Cause I wouldn’t want you to forget this is **Kyoko Kirigiri’s Class Trial**!”

“In short, you want us to work out who killed her before returning to this topic…” Mukuro surmised.

Monokuma hummed pitifully, hanging his head.

“Well, it’s just, memory loss is so scaaary! I think you guys just need a break for now, is all. Better get crackin’ on that murder before you forget all the nitty-gritty details~!”

Togami crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes.

“To sum things up, we have four possible suspects for Kirigiri’s murder: Makoto Naegi, Sayaka Maizono, Mukuro Ikusaba, and Junko Enoshima. We ruled out Maizono because she couldn’t have retrieved the bomb from the gymnasium… And if we take Maizono and Naegi’s accounts at face value, Naegi couldn’t have done it since he woke up in the Headmaster’s Office **after** the trial…”

Celes placed her hands on her hips.

“We need to identify the masked person that whisked Naegi-kun away… Maizono, think. Was there truly nothing that could identify the kidnapper? Nothing to prove Ikusaba’s innocence?”

The idol’s brow furrowed as she thought back to those hazy memories… She was so worried about Makoto at the time. A white suit, a mask… Nothing sprang to mind as unique or a way for her to identify the person with certainty.

Mukuro faced the idol with an intense look.

“Maizono. Did you witness the person’s right hand? Did you get a look at it at all?”

Sayaka’s confusion grew at the unexpected question.

“The right hand…?” The bluenette shook her head disappointedly. “I-I mean, I saw it, when they picked up Makoto… But I didn’t see anything off about it.”

Mukuro smirked in triumph.

“No wolf tattoo?”

“N-No…?” Sayaka blinked owlishly.

Mukuro held up her right hand for all to see.

“This is proof that I was a member of Fenrir… When I got revealed as a mole, I stopped wearing foundation to hide it – there was no point concealing it anymore. If Maizono didn’t see it when Naegi-kun was taken… that means someone **else** took him.” The soldier leered pointedly at the bear, who stood up, affronted.

“I resent that accusation! If you wore foundation before, you coulda just done it again on that night!” The bear rubbed the back of his head bashfully. “And even **if** you got yourself off the suspect list, it coulda been Kirigiri, y’know~…”

Togami snorted in disbelief.

“I highly doubt that. Maizono, did the person have burn scars on those hands?” At the idol’s denial, he inclined his head mockingly at Monokuma. “You see? In your precious File, you said those scars on her hands had been there for quite some time… Maizono would have seen and known what those were right away!”

Monokuma raised a claw threateningly.

“Don’t take that tone with me, young man…! Just ‘cause it couldn’t have been Kirigiri, doesn’t mean Ikusaba is in the clear yet! You need something a little more **concrete** for me to accept that you identified this supposed ‘masked kidnapper’!”

Mukuro ran a hand through her hair casually, looking off to the side disinterestedly.

“You still suspect me for taking Naegi-kun…? Even after that sloppy cover-up, Monokuma-chan? … That’s cool.” The soldier turned to Mondo expectantly. “Hey, Oowada… When we investigated the Bio Lab together, how many bodies were in there, again?”

The biker jumped at the sudden interrogation. Mukuro didn’t look to be in the mood to elaborate on her strategy.

“U-Uh… There was eight.” Mondo answered uncertainly. “… I think.”

“You **think** …?” The soldier asked archly, which earned a more confident response.

“I mean, hell yeah there was eight! I counted eight blue lights, and that wordy manual said those refrigerators only light up when it’s in use!”

Mukuro grinned excitedly, eyeballing Monokuma from the corner of her eye.

“And **just** to be sure I’m not making this up… Who did we find in those refrigerators?”

Mondo scowled as he went through the mental list of all the people they lost.

“Fukawa, Hagakure, Asahina, Bro, Yamada, Kuwata, Oogami, and… Kirigiri.”

“To summarize,” Mukuro airily remarked, appearing unbothered by how quiet Monokuma had gone. “The seven of us, and Enoshima, are the only ones left alive. Monokuma-chan verified for us that we’re the **only** people left alive in the academy ever since the coliseum opened up… Leaving that aside for **just** a moment, though. Oowada, when we checked Kirigiri, did anything strike out to you?”

Mondo growled lowly at all these detours. How was any of this gonna help Ikusaba prove her innocence…?

“Kirigiri was dressed in that white suit we found her in… What about it?”

Mukuro sidestepped the question.

“What about that left arm in plain view?”

The biker rubbed the back of his head as he thought back on it.

“Well… There was a tear in the sleeve, yeah… but Kirigiri herself didn’t look cut there!”

Mukuro grinned and latched onto those details.

“A **cut** in the sleeve, and Kirigiri’s arm was **just fine** … Doesn’t that seem weird to anyone~?”

Celes narrowed her eyes as the soldier danced around the topic. She was clearly leading them to a certain conclusion, but what was the point? The sharper members of their group weren’t going to be led down the wrong path… They’d question this conclusion like they had everything else.

But even stranger… Ikusaba’s attitude. This was borderline condescension…

“You’re claiming the suit was already damaged before it was placed on Kirigiri.” The gambler deduced what Mukuro wanted them to see.

Mukuro shrugged nonchalantly.

“Oowada said it himself, didn’t he? Kirigiri wasn’t wounded in the arm~!”

Monokuma took offense to this insinuation.

“Who’s to say that tear was made recently?! For all you know, that tear’s a red herring…!”

“Kirigiri’s clothes had a bloodstain on them not related to wound on her own body…” Mukuro deadpanned at the bear. “Anyone wanna take a wild stab in the dark how that happened?!”

Makoto’s eyes widened in realization.

“K-Kirigiri wounded the Mastermind?!” In Makoto’s eyes, he had never believed Mukuro was the one that kidnapped him. She wouldn’t have rescued him, if she had.

That left only one possibility in terms of who his kidnapper was…

“ **Ding-ding-ding**! We got us a winner, Triple 7’s~!” Mukuro gave a Cheshire grin as she flashed a peace sign at the luckster.

Togami frowned as he mulled it over.

“Kirigiri wounding the Mastermind never came up in the earlier trial… That would definitely line up with that tear in the sleeve…” He narrowed his eyes at the soldier. “Kirigiri’s clothes were never found in the initial investigation. Where were they?”

“In the Bio Lab, where else?” Mondo snorted derisively at the heir. Byakuya turned an icy glare on him next.

“And you verified this bloodstain on the clothes with your own eyes?”

Mondo rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

“I didn’t look too close… They were Kirigiri’s, y’know? A chick’s clothes. But yeah, I saw the stain she’s talkin’ about.”

Monokuma raised both paws angrily.

“Ikusaba could have an injury like that on her, right?! You gonna cavity search her?! I want in~!”

Mukuro was still smirking cockily.

“Too bad for you, the Mastermind’s clothes only had an injury on the arm~! So we’re looking for someone that got cut on the left arm… Hmmmmm….” The soldier tapped her chin mockingly before rolling up her left sleeve to show everyone. “I’m in the clear~! I guess that leaves the naughty girl behind the curtain~…”

Monokuma growled, steam rolling off of him a little.

“Jeez, you got sassy! Where’s all this coming from, huh?! What makes you think **no one else** coulda gotten injured?”

“Togami, Oowada, Fujisaki, and myself were together all night.” Celes reminded the bear. “Maizono witnessed the masked person abduct Naegi… They didn’t have burn scars, nor a wolf tattoo on the right hand. Moreover, the person in the suit was cut by Kirigiri – and Ikusaba literally showed us it couldn’t have been her. That leaves…”

Monokuma cut the gambler off gleefully.

“Maaaiiizono~! That’s what you were gonna say, right?! Who believes someone without an alibi?” In response, Sayaka shot the bear a glare and rolled up her own left sleeve, to show she was injury-free as well. “… Now that’s just mean.”

Togami tapped his temple thoughtfully.

“Hmm… So it seems the Mastermind **is** the only possible suspect left… And if we’re to believe your assertion about the only living people within these fortified walls…”

Monokuma stood up on his throne.

“H-H-Hold on! Just what are you driving at here?! You’re implying **I’m** the villain?! Then where’s your evidence!”

“Y-Your Control room…” Fujisaki suggested.

“What about it?!” The bear growled.

“The way it’s set up, it’s short range. It can’t receive signals from outside the school, and the systems have to be manually controlled from within there… There’s no way around that.”

Togami crossed his arms, eyeing the programmer shrewdly.

“Then what about the possibility… that Monokuma has an artificial intelligence? Such as your Alter Ego did?”

Makoto winced as the heir proposed that theory. He hadn’t even considered that, when Fujisaki told him about the Control Room…

But Fujisaki shook his head.

“Monokuma is manually controlled. I might not know much about a lot of things, but I know computers! There’s no way Monokuma has artificial intelligence software!”

There was a long tense silence. They waited to see if Togami would reject the programmer’s claim… but the heir nodded in acceptance.

“Very well. That was a worthwhile contribution to the investigation, I must confess.”

Makoto smiled gratefully at Togami, as did Fujisaki. It seemed as if… they were finally making some headway in restoring the trust they had in one another… Despite the paranoid suspicions some of them had at the start.

“To sum up the main points of Fujisaki’s discovery…” Makoto began to explain. “The Mastermind is somewhere in this academy. They **must** be inside that Control room to operate Monokuma… And that would imply there are currently eight living people inside this academy right this instant.”

“Right…” Mondo agreed, barely thinking about it. “’Cause there’s the seven of us here, and one in the… Control room… Wait, then who the hell **is** operating Monokuma right now?”

Monokuma strangely stayed quiet. Sayaka ran a hand through her hair thoughtfully.

“Well... If we think back on all that we’ve learned so far, we see that there are only our class, the sixteen of us, ‘trapped’ in this academy. The Headmaster used to be here, too… But Celes and I found his remains in a secret room on the second floor of the dorms.”

“R-Remains!?” Mondo recoiled, along with Chihiro. Makoto seemed perturbed as well; Byakuya looked to be intrigued.

“Skeletal remains.” Celes specified. “Wrapped tauntingly in an obnoxious gift box.”

Monokuma growled lowly, claw raised threateningly.

“If they’re skeletal remains, then you can’t just claim that was the Headmaster! For all you know, those were the remains of Junko Enoshima…!”

Makoto pointed accusingly at the bear.

“I don’t think so…! You prepped those refrigerators to be our final resting place! Everyone from our class…”

“The 78th Class,” Togami supplied without missing a beat. Makoto nodded in thanks.

“The 78th Class! You wouldn’t store Junko Enoshima somewhere else when she was one of us!”

“There’s sixteen refrigerators!” Mondo cracked his knuckles threateningly. “Just enough room for us, but not the Headmaster!”

“And you told us… **ever since the academic coliseum began** , **there are only sixteen students left alive in the academy**.” Celes stressed yet again. Monokuma hung his head, depressed.

“You guys are no fun… Using ‘logic’, and ‘evidence’, and throwing my words back at me again and again and again…” Monokuma humphed and turned his back on the students moodily. “Aw, whatever! I suppose we can get to the juicy bits now. You guys must think you’re all hotstuff for working things out to this level… But as you know, we’re just getting started~!”

With this declaration, there was suddenly a cloud of smoke around Monokuma. A minute later, a figure appeared… A very familiar face.

“Ultimate Despair Junko Enoshima up in heeere!” Junko grinned maniacally as she crossed her arms like a rapper. Unlike Mukuro, who had a bow and bunny hairclip when she posed as Junko, the real deal had hair clips that symbolized Monokuma’s black and white halves. Junko stood in the podium that had went unused for the previous trials, between the portraits of Hagakure and Asahina. The blonde placed hands on her hips proudly. “I’ve been waiting! Oh, yes, I’ve been waiting! Waiting to find mortals like you! Submit to yourselves to me, and half the world is yours. I’ve already prepared titles for the real estate! I’ll even throw in fame, fortune, and a home-cooked meal! What do you say? Do you submit?”

“ **HELL NO! SCREW YOU!** ” Mondo roared out of impulse, which got Junko to laugh.

“Ahh, were you serious about that? I’m sorry, that was a joke.” Junko giggled, a hand covering up half her face. “It’s been so long since I’ve been out in public that I’ve forgotten what type of character I was… In any case, I’m finally free… Day after day and week after week, constantly playing Monokuma… For someone hopelessly as fickle as me, that’s worse than self-flagellation—it’s suicide.”

Her classmates just stared at her in shock.

“More importantly, your face…” Fujisaki murmured.

“Hmm? What about my face? Is something wrong with this face, which is said to be as disgustingly adorable as a hundred Chihuahuas?”

“It’s like… I’ve seen you before…” Sayaka muttered uncertainly.

Makoto shook his head.

“It’s like we were saying… Junko Enoshima really was a student. We’d bought into Ikusaba’s lie that her cover shots were Photoshopped, but the truth is that Enoshima didn’t have to do any editing… **This** is Junko Enoshima… The **real** Junko Enoshima… She’s the one plastered all over the magazines…!”

“Thunderous applause for working out something so obvious a monkey could do it… Oh, wait. That gets no applause at all.” Junko snarked.

“H-Hold on…” Sayaka stuttered. “You called Ikusaba… your older sister…”

Junko grinned madly.

“That’s exactly right! You recalled something that was said five seconds ago, good for you! Indeed… Mukuro is my hopeless older twin sister…”

“Twin sister…?” Celes echoed.

“I am me. And Mukuro is Mukuro.” Junko proclaimed. “No matter how much makeup she wears, Mukuro can never become the Ultimate Fashionista. As long as the barrier exists between mind and the body, two beings can never become one… even if they are twins. It almost feels cliché, so I’m embarrassed to admit it… But it’s the truth. Mukuro Ikusaba—the archetypal ‘athletic older sister’—and me—the archetypal ‘adorable genius little sister.’ The **Ultimate Despair** crew called us the ‘Despair Sisters’!”

She was cackling madly toward the end, signaling a change in Junko.

“Did you just suddenly… change your personality?” Makoto asked warily.

“I already told ya! I’m fickle beyond hope—I even get tired of my own personality!”

Fujisaki stared nervously at the floor.

“If you’re twin sisters… Why are your last names different?”

“ **That** question again…” Junko rolled her eyes. “I get it all the damn time… I don’t care if it’s your first offense—I’ve had to answer that same question to the point of despair! Anyway! It’s cliché as fuck, so come up with something yourself and we’ll roll with that!”

Mukuro stared at Junko blankly before turning to Fujisaki.

“She made me change my last name so that no one would actually know we were family. To be honest, Junko handled everything.”

The fashionista comically recoiled at her older sister’s defiance.

“ **THE FUUUCK** you just say, maggot?!”

Mukuro glared right back at her.

“I’m not taking your shit anymore, Junko-chan. That’s what it means.” The soldier declared in no uncertain terms. And for the first time since joining her class in the courtroom, Junko **stared** at her sister.

“… Interesting. Go on.” Junko sounded far too intrigued for what seemed like a wild tangent.

Makoto looked over at Mukuro in concern. Something occurred to him just now.

“So wait… You put your sister out in the open with the rest of us, in harm’s way? Why…?” He didn’t get to finish as Junko cleared her throat and put on some glasses, switching personalities again.

“Right. Allow me to explain. For this project, I required someone to pull the strings behind the scenes in the academic coliseum. Someone to operate Monokuma and keep watch over all of you—in a word, a ‘Mastermind’… However, according to my calculations, Mukuro Ikusaba was incapable of serving that role. She was, after all, a pitiful sister. The kind of incomparably pitiful sister who would go off on her own and enlist in a mercenary group. For that reason, I took the behind-the-scenes role and elected to leave her out in the open as a student. Keeping her with me behind the curtain was an option, but she wouldn’t have been of any help there… Besides, like I said, **fifteen participants** is a nice, round number. But then, there was the dilemma of Mukuro Ikusaba’s title, ‘Ultimate Soldier’. It is, in a word, ‘3H’. **Hopelessly** foul, **hopelessly** disgusting, and **hopelessly** repulsive… To know that she was far removed from the needs of the society required no calculation on my part. On the other hand, it would have been a shame to let the beauty of my **Fashionista** title go to waste.”

Celes narrowed her eyes.

“So that’s… why you switched places?”

Junko went on.

“However, she resembled me even less than I had calculated. Despairingly so… She was no better than a filler character—a ‘Girl A’, so to speak… Coupled with her underwhelming appearance, many predicted she would be one of the first murdered.”

**That** got Mukuro to stiffen and look at Junko strangely. One of the first murdered… That would imply Oogami was going to be ordered to kill her, at the start. However, Mukuro knew Junko – the Despair she craved. Having an outsider murder her own sister, even if she had the power to do so, was not something Junko would allow.

Junko would want to do it herself, to glean the most Despair from the occasion… And that’s when Mukuro recalled a certain plan Junko relayed to her shortly before the game commenced. She was supposed to fake being imprisoned and help the rest of the time from behind the scenes… Obviously, Junko planned to kill her around that time, Mukuro could see that now. Her continued existence meant they had transcended the original script Junko had in mind.

… So why the change?

“Don’t tell me… the only reason…!” Makoto exclaimed, coming to a similar morbid conclusion as Mukuro.

“Naturally, that’s not the only reason. There was also the more prevalent fact that I’d gotten tired of her. You know… I’ve never ooonce had things go according to plan… It’s like, by planning things out, I know what’s gonna happen, so I started getting booored…” Junko made a cutesy expression, switching personalities again. “… so I had a change of heart! Rather than **kill** Mukuro-nee to use as a friendly warning shot to the rest of you, Operation **Raze Mukuro-nee** was booorn~!”

Sayaka held a hand over her mouth, petrified.

“O-Operation Raze Mukuro…?”

Junko waved the idol off casually, like it was no big deal.

“It’s no big deal. Nothing to it, really. I’d let dumb, stinky neechan get close to you guys… Let her think she was still helping keep an eye on you, while also getting warm and fuzzies from making buddies with you~! She’d get all conflicted about hurting you guys… about deceiving Naegi-chan~… She’d build up **aaall** that disgusting hope within her heart…” Junko gasped melodramatically. “And then…! Tragedy~! You guys all turn on her ‘cause she’s a dirty, rotten traitor! But that’s not all… She comes crawling back to me, but she only gets the cold shoulder! I’m so **jealous** she got to feel such awful, miserable, **orgasmic** Despair~… But it **still** wasn’t enough!”

Makoto trembled in anger.

“D-Don’t tell me… **that’s** why you…!”

Junko knocked on her skull eccentrically.

“Naegi-chaaan! Keep up, would you?! **You’re the most important person to neechan**! **Her entire world**!” Junko shook her head exasperatedly. “There was also the fact that you just wouldn’t shut your yap about ‘Hope’ this and ‘Justice’ that… What are you, a Power Ranger?! So, anyway. That’s when I decided, I’d kill two birdies with one bazooka! We’d remove you from the game and have you watch your friends kill each other. And neechan would be executed for your not-death! The best part? She’d already be crushed by her own Despair of seeing your charred not-corpse, so that cheapass block wouldn’t have much left to squash… Too bad that virus mucked up the beautiful coup de grace. Such a beautifully perfect, elegant plan gone to waste… I only wanted to crush Mukuro-nee’s heart, mind, and body all at once. Is that so wrong~?”

Dead silence met the latest rambling monologue from Enoshima. They were all at such a loss for words. This… was the Mastermind they were destined to fight? This… was the person that Mukuro had been in league with…?

“… Okay.” Mondo said after what seemed like an eternity of silence, taking a deep breath. “So you are like… quadruple mega dead… And I’m gonna execute your ass myself. You, uh… You executed Bro. It’s your fault Oogami killed herself. You killed Kirigiri and took Naegi from us… And… you fucking wanted to destroy your own sister in the worst way possible. I’m gonna **kill you myself**!”

Makoto’s hands flew up in the air as he panicked and tried to calm the biker down.

“W-W-Wait, Oowada…!” He cried out.

“ **C’mon** , Naegi…!” Mondo raised a twitching hand furiously. “I get that you wanted to give Ikusaba a chance! Hell, I’m glad you talked us into it! After hearing all that bullshit, I finally know whose skull I gotta cave in – Ikusaba doesn’t hafta suffer anymore! But this bitch?! You **really** gonna tell me to not tear her limb from limb?!”

Togami’s arms were crossed as he scowled fiercely.

“Plankton has a point for once. This woman made a mockery of me, of the Togami family… When this is done, we are dragging her through the streets before I execute her publicly… I will allow no other outcome!”

“Th-That’s not what I…” Makoto trailed off helplessly. “I-I just mean…”

Junko snorted derisively.

“The ‘noble’ Togami bloodline? Yeeeah… Like they’re not already toast…”

Togami whirled on the fashionista furiously, raising a fist threateningly.

“What was that, you wench?”

Junko grinned, covering half her face again.

“No, no, don’t mind me… I’m just enjoying the shitshow~…”

Celes spoke up calmly, eyeing the luckster softly.

“Naegi-kun, I think all of us want a piece of her at this point. All we’ve lost, all we’ve been through… The trauma she’s caused…” She glared disdainfully at the fashionista who preened like it was a compliment.

“Y-You’re horrible…!” Fujisaki sobbed, looking to Junko hurtfully. Destroying Alter Ego had hurt him enough, but all the friends she killed, the lives she destroyed…! What she **wanted** to do to the rest of them…!

Junko drooped, mushrooms growing out of her head.

“I know… I’m just the worst~…”

Sayaka hugged herself, shivering. She looked over to Mukuro sympathetically.

“Ikusaba just wanted to help you because you were her family…! Sh-She trusted you! W-Would’ve done **anything** for you…!”

Junko stared at the idol coldly as Mukuro remained silent, head bowed and clutching her witness stand with a strong grip.

“You think I care about that…? I am just… done with that wenchtable. If you guys knew the shit I had to put up with her, you’d want her dead, too. Not that I’d expect any of you to understand… After all, neechan and I are creatures of Despair. We operate on a whole ‘nother plain of existence from you chuckle-fucks. You guys have hopes and dreams for your lives… but us? We come into this world thinking, ‘Oh no, we never should have been born…’ It’s just so **pitiful** , seeing you guys try to **understand** her!”

Makoto pointed at Junko accusingly.

“O-Of course we have hopes and dreams for the future…! Y-You guys do, too! I **know** Ikusaba does…! And if she can, so can you…!”

Junko waved him off dismissively.

“Neechan’s a freakjob. You don’t wanna know the shit I had her do, Lucky Lad! The things she’s done… The **people** she’s done **in** … She was just fine with you guys killing each other, and suddenly you’re all throwing yourselves at her out of **pity**?! And you call **me** the deranged sadist… Don’tcha think shacking up with one of your buddies’ tormentors is, like, a breach of trust or whatever? Spitting on their memories? Not like I care either way~…”

Makoto shook his head fiercely.

“You’re wrong! Ikusaba never wanted us to suffer! Sayaka’s right, everything she did was for **you** … Because you were supposed to be her family, the person she could rely on without fail! I don’t blame her for protecting you all this time… If I had been in her shoes… If Komaru had been in yours… I **definitely** would have done the same…!” The luckster raised a hand over his chest assertively. “I believe in Ikusaba! Maybe to you she never had dreams or hopes, but **I** know all she ever wanted was to make you happy…! And now she has other dreams, I can tell! You can’t tell me that you two are different from the rest of us…!”

Junko stared blankly at Makoto before deadpanning.

“… And that’s what makes neechan a freak.”

“H-Huh…?” The luckster stuttered in confusion.

“Neechan **was** a being of Despair… But she transcended to your shitty reality. Yet that’s not all of it – she still wanted to please me, too. Was still willing to drag this world into the pits of utter Despair. So she was neither **Hope** nor **Despair** … What kind of wishy-washy stance is that? That just pisses me off even more.”

Celes arched an eyebrow in intrigue.

“So you’re saying if she had been absolutely loyal, you wouldn’t have killed her?”

Junko snorted disdainfully.

“ **No** , I would’ve smoked that bitch good if she did that! Killing your sister is primo mega Despair – no way I was ever gonna miss out on that.” Junko made a cutesy face. “I’m just saying if she was at least gonna betray me, she should’ve gone all the way~! She was a dead woman walking either way, but at least I woulda squeezed more Despair out of it~!”

Mondo growled in frustration.

“I want to snap your neck so bad right now…”

Junko covered half her face as she smirked.

“Well, let’s stop dragging our feet then, eh? As I recall, you only managed to prove it was me who killed Kirigiri. Remember we’re here for more than just that~…” Junko rolled up her sleeve to show the nasty scar on her left arm. “But good job finding out about this~… That’ll show me for ever trusting you guys to just lie down and die like good boys and girls. Kirigiri only scratched the surface, but will you guys be able to dig deeper~?”

“O-Of course we will…!” Makoto bravely asserted. “We’ll solve all the mysteries, just like you want!”

Fujisaki trembled nervously.

“B-But where do we go from here…? Do we go back to talking about those pictures? Or the interviews…?”

“Hey, Enoshima, how ‘bout you throw us a hint, since you love Despair sooo fucking much?” The biker growled impatiently. Junko placed her hands on her hips arrogantly.

“I already gave you lot your next hint~! I told you that your lost memories had to do with a certain… **something** …”

“Th-The incentives…?” Sayaka recalled.

Junko smirked yet again, covering half her face.

“Of course you’d remember something that important… It was a silly question, and rude for me to have asked. I extend unto you my humblest apologies… Now, if you would allow me to ask yet another question… Were you aware that there was a specific **theme** in each of the incentives I gave?”

“A theme…?” Celes echoed. Junko nodded sagely.

“Yes, indeed there was. And I would like to extend this question as a quiz to you all. What was the theme for the first incentive, the one I gave before Fukawa’s murder and before Maizono contemplated setting Naegi-chan up to take the fall for her own plan?”

Makoto frowned as Junko slipped that barb in. Sayaka had confessed that to him earlier, and while it did hurt that she thought about using him, he knew she had avoided doing so in the end. That’s what mattered – he was glad that he could help talk her down from killing… She didn’t even know about the rules for Class Trials, so her execution would have hit him even harder than the others had…

“ **Interpersonal relations** was the theme of the incentive for the first murder…” Makoto answered the fashionista without hesitation.

“Ding-Dong, Ding-Dong. You’re absolutely correct. The DVDs I handed out… contained videos of everyone’s precious interpersonal relationships being laid to waste… Your families… Your friends… By destroying these people and showing you the aftermath… I fanned the flames of your desire to escape in an attempt to incite a murder. Even so, you guys can be **cruel** …”

“You’re one to talk! It was **you** who did it!” Mondo shouted in outrage.

“Yes, of course, and I accept full responsibility.” Junko proceeded to make a cutesy face again. “’Kaaay! Time for the neeext question! Umm, well, what do you think the theme of the second incentive was, when Ishimaaarrruuu was the **villain** , and Oowaaada chickened out?!”

Celes huffed exasperatedly.

“Our **pasts** … right?”

Junko cheered obnoxiously.

“Yayifications! You guys are right again! Yep, yep, the theme for that incentive was… your **shameful memories** , and your **deepest** , **darkest secrets**! Oowada and Ishimaru didn’t want Oowada’s secret getting out, so Asahina had to die to keep it niiice and saaafe~…”

Togami scowled as he recalled that was also when he was informed about Oogami’s status as a mole… And like a fool, he let Enoshima dictate what he’d do.

“What’s your damn point? How long are you going to keep this up?” The heir demanded.

“C’mon, don’t be a party-pooper!” Junko pouted cutely. “Here’s your next question! Who can tell me what the **third** incentive was? Anyone? Aaanyone?”

The murder where Monokuma offered a small fortune… but also permitted the killer to take someone along with them…

“Greed…” Sayaka frowned as her eyes remained downcast. She had also faltered at that incentive, would’ve made the same mistake Celes did… But also…

“Destroyer of worlds! You fuckin’ got it!” Junko flashed gangster signs again. “Yeah! It was the money! And it was the fucktoy you coulda brought with ya~! Celes sure took the bait, tryna off Yamada! Too bad Kuwata wanted to bang Maizono more than Celes did with Naegi~! Money and ‘friendship’ was the incentive, and greed was the motive for the third murder!”

“Just what are you getting at?! Why are you asking us these questions?!” Makoto demanded, feeling as frustrated as the rest of them did – he looked over to Sayaka, who was looking down again in guilt. And he looked to Celes, who appeared to be restraining herself from lashing out at Junko like the fashionista wanted.

Junko cackled.

“Hahahahaha! Chill out, this is the last one! You know what the theme for the fourth, sorta fucked up murder’s incentive was?!”

Oogami’s suicide…

“ **B-Betrayal** …” Fujisaki trailed off, disheartened at recalling not just being helpless to save Oogami, but also Monokuma smashing Alter Ego as punishment…

Junko adopted a sorrowful look as she whispered softly.

“Yes, that’s right… Oogami killed herself… because I revealed Mukuro-nee’s betrayal… And Mukuro-nee tried offing Oogami to get back into my good graces… That’s four out of four… I’m ecstatic…”

Togami gritted his teeth impatiently.

“What’s your point? What was the meaning of all those questions?”

“Interpersonal relationships and memories, greed and betrayal… Pretty standard motives, right? Clichéd even among clichés. You could say they’ve been done to **death**!” Junko placed her hands on her hips proudly. “However, those four are, obviously, not the only motives that exist in the world! There are as many motives for murder in the world as there are people to act on them. And these motives drive people to kill each other, bringing despair upon the world… I refer to them as **the seeds of Despair**!”

“The seeds of Despair…?” Celes echoed.

“Just as living things need food, water, and air to grow, so too do seeds of Despair require sustenance. Yes, **Hope**. Despair thrives **because** it has Hope! Like the two sides of a coin, Hope and Despair are polar opposites, yet lie inseparably close together.”

Togami clenched a fist in aggravation.

“How long are you going to continue this insipid sermon?! What the **hell** happened to talking about our memories? Are you trying to avoid the topic?”

“I object to that.” Junko denied, slipping on glasses and appearing scholarly. “I’m not avoiding the subject of your memories. I am in fact discussing them right now. To put it simply, these seeds of Despair are very closely connected to your memories.”

“I-In what way are they connected…?” Fujisaki asked, confused.

“By stealing your memories, I gave each of you Hope. **I gave you Hope so you could be consumed by Despair**.”

Sayaka’s brow furrowed.

“How does having our memories stolen… translate into being given Hope?” She asked uncertainly. Mondo nodded slowly in agreement.

“Yeah… I dunno what you think you gave us, bitch, but it sure wasn’t Hope…”

“Are you sure? Did the thought of ‘I want to get out of here’ never cross your mind? The very fact that you had this thought means you indeed had Hope.”

Togami crossed his arms again, frowning.

“What… are you talking about…?”

Junko arrogantly placed her hands on her hips again.

“If you **didn’t want out of here** , the killing never would have started… That’s why I stole your memories – to encourage your **‘I want to get out of here!’** thoughts!”

Celes narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

“So you’re saying we want out of here **because** we had our memories stolen?”

Junko giggled as she held Monokuma up to cover her face.

“Upupu~… Bingo~!”

“Turning it around, you’re saying that if we had our memories, we **wouldn’t** want to leave?” Togami growled, clenching a fist again in aggravation.

Mondo recoiled at the suggestion.

“Wh-What the heck?! Why wouldn’t we want out if we had our memories?!”

“Upupu… You’re confused, so very confused… But nowhere near enough. I need you to be even more confused, to fall even deeper into Despair… I mean, your Hope has done such a good job of growing your Despair this much already, so why stop there? And on that note, I’m gonna give you a hint sooo big, I might as well be wrapping a belt around my neck!”

“R-Really?!” Sayaka asked in disbelief. Celes narrowed her eyes.

“Hurry up and say what you have to say…”

“As they say, seeing is believing~… So I’m gonna give you guys a look **at the outside world**!” Junko giggled again.

Makoto’s brow furrowed.

“You mean… **outside the academy walls**?”

“Something happened out there, didn’t it?” Togami asked suspiciously.

“You wanna know, don’tcha? You wanna see, don’tcha? Upupu… I also wanna see… your faces as they sink into Despair~… Daaaaahahahaha! **And now, our feature presentation**!” As the displays around them turned on, showing various images, Junko continued to rant. “This is the world outside the academy walls! This is what the place you’ve been going onnn and onnn about wanting to return to looks like!”

“H-Huh…?” Makoto voiced all of their evident confusion. Incomprehensible images flashed across the screen in a set cycle. Images of famous monuments and sites redecorated in Monokuma’s image… A giant Monokuma violently punching a skyscraper… People rioting in the streets with Monokuma helmets… Each and every one of them, nonsensical. It was like a terrible slideshow of Photoshopped images…

Makoto kept telling himself that’s all they were, but…

“So, there you have it…” Junko was ‘depressed’ again as she whispered softly. “Things are bad… The world’s in trouble…”

Mondo’s hand twitched violently as he growled.

“What the **hell** is this shit?! Is this your idea of a joke?!”

“What… is this…?” Togami demanded, with a lot less heat than he wanted as the images continued to cycle.

“This is… This is a movie or something… It **has** to be…!” Sayaka cried out in panic. Her idol group… was out there…?! Makoto’s **family** was out there?!

“You should all know the meaning… behind the images on those screens… I gave you the hint a long time ago…”

Makoto gaped at Junko in dismay.

“Don’t tell me…! That ‘Biggest, Most Awful, Most Despair-inducing Incident’… led to this…?!” He didn’t want to believe it. He **refused** to believe it!

Junko flashed gangster signs.

“’Led’ to this?! Don’tcha mean this is how the world **ended** like this?!”

“Ended…?” Celes was containing her shock better than the others, but naturally she was caught off-guard as well.

“G-Give me details!” Togami demanded more forcefully than the last time he’d spoken. “Tell me everything you know!”

Junko cackled gleefully.

“What ‘happened’?! No, no, no! The Incident that started all this means **shit** to you guys, so I’m just gonna chalk up a few more points for you! What matters is that we transcended the realm of simple man-made catastrophe… and entered the realm of natural disaster! It was undoubtedly the ‘Biggest, Most Awful, Most Despair-inducing Incident in Human History’! As a result, the world… turned out like that~! The end.”

Fujisaki shivered in dread.

“Th-There’s no way the world just ended…!”

“Relax! It’s no big deal!” Junko teased condescendingly. “A hundred years from now, everyone will be dead anyway, so the end of the world is hardly a big deal.”

Togami chewed his nails in worry.

“This is absurd… Preposterous!”

Junko smirked, hiding half her face again.

“Then, while we’re talking crazy, allow me to tell you something else that’s preposterous. It’s about the light at the end of your tunnel – the Togami Group…”

“What was that?!” Togami demanded heatedly.

Junko slipped on her glasses again, appearing studious.

“Exactly. That got your attention. I have your attention like a cake buffet has the attention of an exhausted secretary… The point is: your family, Togami, has been compleeetely and toootally wiped off the map~!”

Togami paled at the nonsensical response.

“What… the hell… are you talking about…?!

“I can confirm the deaths of everyone connected to your house and their relatives. Your family is history.”

“S-Stop telling such tasteless jokes!” Togami hissed.

“’Stop’?” Junko placed her hands on her hips, grinning. “Are you ordering me around? A mere **mortal** dares give me, **divine punishment incarnate** , an order? Know your place, lowly mortal! You are no longer worthy of the title ‘Ultimate Scion’!”

Togami shook his head fiercely, biting at his nails again.

“N-Nothing could destroy my family! The Togami Group… will control the world…!”

Junko flashed gangster signs again.

“Man, that ‘world’ already ended! A damn year ago, too!”

“H-Hold on! What you’re saying doesn’t make any sense!” Makoto protested.

“Whaaat?! It doesn’t make any seeense~?!” Junko made a cutesy face.

“N-No, Naegi’s right…” Mondo began to sweat. “You’re sayin’… We closed ourselves off in this academy… because the world basically **ended a year ago**? How does that even work?!”

Celes cupped a hand over her mouth as she nodded in agreement.

“I do believe we would have noticed signs that the world was ending, before we entered the academy…”

Junko cocked her head smugly.

“Hmm…? You mean when you entered the academy **two years ago** …?” She grinned.

“T-Two years…!” Mondo exclaimed, reeling back in shock.

“… That would explain the photos…” Celes mused, knuckle over her mouth as she seriously considered the implications. “And the interviews…”

“And Hagakure’s notebook…” Sayaka added, to everyone’s confusion.

“Huh?” Makoto voiced the question on everyone’s minds.

“It was on the second floor of the dorms… Using the Emergency Use e-handbook that Celes and I found in the Headmaster’s secret room, I went ahead and investigated the lockers. There wasn’t really much in the few that I could open, but there was one that still had stuff inside… A crystal ball, tarot cards, and a bunch of notebooks and other supplies. And one of the notebooks had Hagakure’s name written in it. There was also a locker that had Kirigiri’s notebook inside… I deduced it was hers by the fact that the writer referenced the Headmaster as her father!”

“H-Hold on…!” Mondo scrambled to recover. “You’re saying… those lockers belonged to us?!”

“They’d have to… for Kirigiri and Hagakure to have lockers up there…” Fujisaki remarked.

“But I never even attended a single class here!” Mondo continued to deny it.

“Hagakure’s notes suggested otherwise…” Sayaka refuted the biker. “And if we studied here for two years, then it’s no surprise Hagakure had so many notes!”

Celes stared down at the floor, a new rush of emotions overwhelming her.

“Two whole years erased, just like that…? H-How…?” The gambler leaned on her witness stand for support. Suddenly, Kuwata’s testimony about Yamada’s final moments sprang back to her mind.

So that’s how Yamada had known her name… Celes had suspected that was the case from the moment she heard that testimony – that Yamada hadn’t been talking about Hagakure at all. Yet she deluded herself that there was no possible way he could have known her real name… Lo and behold, there was indeed a way. But for the otaku to have known… Did she…? Did she **really** become close enough to her other classmates that she told even **Hifumi** her real name?

… Strangely, she did still miss that idiot…

Togami seethed as he stood there stiffly. All of them were struggling to cope with this new revelation – the heir just channeled his energy into being furious, over being bitter and depressed.

“We were led to believe our meeting in the entrance hall was our very first day… Is that where you stopped the memory wipes? The first time we each set foot on campus?”

Makoto rubbed his chin as he thought over it.

“That is when we all ‘blacked out’ isn’t it…? The truth is…We attended school for two whole years. We made friends with each other, studied together, made irreplaceable memories…Then the ‘Biggest, Most Atrocious, Most Despair-inducing Incident in Human History’ happened a year ago, spread to the rest of the world, and we agreed to shelter ourselves in here...”

“Because Headmaster Kirigiri wanted to protect you from all that wonderful Despair outside~!” Junko preened. She then slipped on her glasses again. “But he never considered that there was Despair inside as well…”

Everyone with amnesia sobered up as it all came crashing down on them. The revelations. They’d attended school for two years… possibly became the closest of friends, and experienced growth as a class. Junko and Mukuro worked behind the scenes to bring about the end of the world. As a class, they then sheltered themselves here, most likely so that they could fix the world later when the worst of it was over… A monumental task indeed, but not an impossible one for Ultimates like them.

And then… tragedy struck, as Junko made her move and stole their memories. Confused and befuddled them, made them strangers to one another again, and inspired them to murder…

“And those cameras…” Fujisaki remembered with a whimper.

“That’s riiight~!” Junko chirped. “All your atrocious murders have been broadcast the world over! **Some people** on the outside haven’t given up yet, and that’s another reason you all had to kill each other~… **You guys** had to bring it on home to those people that **hope is a joke**! That even **beacons of hope** can feel despair~…”

And that was the long and short of it. The full extent of Junko and Mukuro’s betrayal. And yet… something still stuck out to Makoto.

“What do you mean… ‘another reason’…?”

Some perked their ears up at that. It was true. Junko had said that.

… The fashionista adopted a sad personality.

“W-Well… It’s just… spending two years together as a class, even **I** couldn’t stop growing close to you guys!” Junko sobbed. “So… to have you all kill each other… to have the most important people in my life take their own lives… It’s… It’s so despairingly wonderful~… Orgasmic, really…”

They all just stared at the blonde, who was without a doubt insane… But before they could even grow angry about it, Junko clapped her hands together.

“However, as fun as this is, we don’t have any more time to talk… It’s time we brought this to a close.”

“Bring it to a close…?” Makoto echoed hollowly.

“ **Ballot time** , obviously! Those are the rules, aren’t they?” Junko got all cutesy again. “Oh, and by the way, since this is the final ballot, I decided to change up the rules a bit, toooo!”

“You changed them?” Sayaka asked in bewilderment.

“ **You guys** are Hope, and **I’m** Despair!” Junko said, holding up Monokuma playfully. “The vote is to decide which of those two sides deserve to be punished… And if there’s even one vote in favor of **punishing** **Hope** … then I will be declared the victor, and Team Hope will be punished!”

“E-Even one vote?!” Fujisaki yelped with wide eyes.

“Ah, no worries. I will, of course, not be participating in the ballot.” Junko said like it was no big deal. “And to make things even more fair, my disappointing older sister will be on your side! Because she’s a Hopeless washout that got too buddy-buddy with you all.”

Mondo growled lowly at the fashionista’s proposed rules.

“You’ve still got way too many advantages, bitch…!”

“Don’t worry… Nobody here would choose… to have themselves executed…” Makoto assured the biker.

Junko gave a Cheshire grin ominously.

“Byyy the wayyy… I thought I’d explain the punishment system for this last round! Rather than **all** of you getting punished… If **you guys lose** … You get to decide **who** gets to be punished~!” The fashionista confessed, to their immense confusion.

Sayaka furrowed her brow distressfully.

“W-We get to choose…?”

Junko clapped her hands together again ecstatically.

“Yep, yep~! But it’s not… **completely** your choice, y’see.” Junko raised a pointer finger authoritatively before grinning madly. “I’ve decided~! If you guys **lose** , then you hafta pick who gets executed – Mukuro-nee or Naegi-chan! And the rest of you… get to live out the rest of your lives in the academy ‘til you become senile~! **No more coliseum**!”

“M-Me?! Or Ikusaba?!” Makoto’s hands flew up defensively as he cried out in panic. Sayaka’s eyes hardened as she glared at the fashionista.

“Yeah! Why them?!”

Celes also glared darkly at Junko’s proposed rules.

“This hardly seems fair… Executing one of our own, just so the rest of us can live…?”

Mondo raised a fist threateningly.

“ **Screw that**! Like we’d decide to live here anyway!”

“Y-Yeah…!” Fujisaki piped up, trying to muster as much determination as he could.

Togami narrowed his eyes suspiciously, crossing his arms.

“I’m going to take a guess… that if **we win** , there’s a caveat… Otherwise, you wouldn’t make our loss so lenient.”

Junko giggled uncontrollably.

“It’s simple, really~…! If all of you vote for **me** to be punished… Then **I** get to decide if I take someone with me or not! And the rest of you will have to leave the academy. Of course, the same restrictions will apply… I can only choose between Mukuro-nee and Naegi-chan~! So basically… If you throw my worthless, traitorous sister to the wolves, the rest of you can live your happy lives with Naegi-chan~! If you don’t… There’s a chance I’ll feel like taking him with me~… Upupu…”

The reaction to Junko’s conditions was… abrupt. The atmosphere became oppressive as Mukuro, who hadn’t spoken for quite some time, glared at her sister so intensely that she should have evaporated on the spot.

“ **What** … did you say…?” Mukuro hissed, voice saturated with hatred and malice.

Junko tilted her head innocently.

“I thought I made the rules quite clear, you stupid lovesick mutt. Naegi-chan or you. That’s what this comes down to~… You wanna kill me? Then you had best hope I don’t pick to bring Naegi-chan along for the ride. The ball’s in your court, bitch.”

Mukuro exploded venomously.

“ **You leave him out of this**! This is between **us**! As if I would ever allow you to take Naegi-kun with you…!”

Junko grinned darkly at the volatile reaction.

“You wouldn’t have a choice, piggy… Remember the Nanami-senpai Special? You wanna test if I rigged the courtroom to take Naegi-chan out before you can even move a muscle? I had plenty of time on my hands while you were all having a merry time investigating~!”

Mukuro stiffened and went very pale as the memories bubbled to the surface in her mind. But now instead of Nanami-senpai, she pictured Naegi-kun skewered by all those spears… Those traumatic visions halted any bloodlust she wanted to broadcast to the fashionista. For once, there was no part of her screaming for Junko’s blood… Even if she wanted to, with every fiber of her being, voting to execute Junko just… **It wasn’t an option**. Not when Junko got to decide Naegi-kun’s fate.

_‘But… But we have to execute her ass… **We have to**! And yet… Naegi-kun… We lose him, too…? **She doesn’t get to decide that**? **Who does that bitch think she is**?!’ _The voice was having a meltdown in her head.

_‘There’s no choice… we have to vote to punish Hope…’_ Mukuro morbidly thought to herself. Maybe… Maybe she could turn the situation around if Junko dropped her guard…

Because there was no way she was going to trust the others not to vote to punish Despair when they also wanted out. Because if they all voted for Junko… No. Mukuro could **not** allow that. No matter what.

No matter what…

“Fucking **shit** …!” Mondo punched his witness stand in aggravation. “We’re **all** supposed to get out of here! **That was supposed to be the deal**! Now you’re telling us, whichever option we go with, **we’re losing someone**?!”

“Th-That should be against the rules…!” Fujisaki cried. What happened to only the Blackened being punished?

Junko smirked, covering half her face.

“Really? I think it’s totally fair~… Mukuro-nee bent the rules to get you that key, and you were sooo buddy-buddy because you had it… This is karma, bitches~!”

“But dragging Naegi-kun into this…?” Celes hissed, a dark aura hanging around her in a haze. “ **He** hasn’t done anything wrong! You shouldn’t get to execute him at all!”

Junko stood up stiffly and stared at the gambler blankly.

“Are you fucking serious? Naegi’s been the most defiant out of all of you… But more importantly, he was complicit in Mukuro-nee’s rule-bending – she chose to ‘entrust’ him with the key, and he poked around where he shouldn’t have… Mama spaaank~!”

Sayaka snapped up straight as she whirled on Junko with a wild, panicked look.

“ **You can’t punish Makoto**! **He**... **He came back to us**! **You can’t kill him again**!!!”

“Sayaka…” Makoto trailed off, looking to the side in anguish. He was as upset about this as they all were… But he promised to get them out of there.

“What’s this? All outta steam? Not so sure of yourselves anymore? Are you afraid of getting punished?” Junko jeered. “Do you not trust your friends…?”

“N-No! That’s not it!” Makoto insisted.

“It’s only natural that you would be experiencing fear. Everyone else seems to have come to the realization that fighting against me is a meaningless endeavor…” Junko prattled on, uncaring of the volatile emotions she was stirring up as a consequence. “Yes… I love those faces… They’re beautiful, eroded away by Despair… You all can’t **bear** to leave the academy for a shattered world when your group mascot might be your final stepping stone… It’s hopeless, Mukuro-nee! You’re **fucked**! No one cares about a worthless whore like you when someone amazinggg like Naegi-chan is also at stake~! Hey, hey, who do you think is gonna do it? Whose Despair is gonna kill Mukuro-nee?”

Makoto looked down momentarily before placing a hand over his heart.

“No one… is going to give in to Despair!” He vowed. He pointed at her in righteous fury. “No one… is going to lose to you!”

Junko just sighed.

“You’re no fun… Stubborn to the bitter end… Ah, whatever. Let’s get this over with... The final ballot… It ends there—your dubious Hope… and you, as well!”

With that, the final debate kicked off…

“We will not give in… As long as we have **Hope** , we will **not** give into you…!” Makoto declared with a raw passion that only he seemed to buy into…

Junko shook her head in disappointment.

“If I’m executed… then Hope’s Peak Academy is done for.”

Makoto looked among his friends, who were all weighed down by the oppressive atmosphere and the impossible choice that was in front of them. The luckster knew that… if they were going to make it out of here, he was going to have to help them make the final push. He turned to Fujisaki first.

“ **Fujisaki** …! Don’t lose Hope now…!”

The programmer looked up at Naegi with a fearful, uncertain gaze.

“B-But… Naegi…! Wh-What’s waiting for us out there…? I don’t… I’m scared…!”

Makoto nodded in sympathy and understanding.

“I know… I’m scared… of what we might find, too. But that’s **exactly** why we have to press forward…! If there’s even a **chance** there’s something out there left for us, we owe it to everyone that’s died to walk out that door!”

Fujisaki hung his head as the luckster’s words resonated within his heart. He then looked up with determined eyes.

“Y-You’re right…! Even if it’s hard… even if I’m scared… We don’t have a choice, right? I-I want to keep on living… For everyone who died…! Th-That’s what it means to be **strong**!”

Makoto nodded and grinned in satisfaction. But Junko continued on…

“By the way, the air outside is totally polluted, y’know. The only reason we’re okay in here… is thanks to the air purifier in the physics lab!”

Makoto turned his attention to Mondo next. He pointed to the biker confidently.

“ **Oowada** …! Don’t lose Hope now!”

Mondo’s face became startled as the luckster addressed him. He frowned and looked down dejectedly.

“Naegi… man… I just can’t do it. This whole final ballot thing… I… If one of us has to die so the rest of us can live… **Fucking shit** …!” He punched his witness stand again. “How the hell can I sentence another person to die?! It’s my fault… It’s my fault Daiya and Ishimaru are dead! If you… or Ikusaba died… I just couldn’t do it! **We’ve lost too much**!”

Makoto bowed his head in understanding.

“Oowada… I understand how you feel. We **have** lost a lot, to get here. But just think: What would Ishimaru do at a time like this? Or Oogami?” Makoto placed a hand over his heart again. “If you want to be a leader for everyone, you have to stand up! We can’t take the easy path – not now. If you choose to live here forever, you’ll **never** see your biker gang again! Do you want that?!”

Mondo gritted his teeth as Makoto’s words resonated within his heart. He shook a fist in frustration.

“D-Damnit… You and Fujisaki… always showing me up…” The biker’s head snapped up furiously as he yelled with passion. “ **Fine** , **then**! I was the fucking idiot that challenged my bro to a race to show I could lead the gang! Why stop now?! I’ll… I’ll do it! I don’t care what I gotta do – I’m dragging **all** your asses out of here! **That includes you** , **Naegi**!”

Makoto grinned and nodded firmly in agreement. That was the way!

“If I die, the purifier will screech to a halt…” Junko continued on. “In other words, as soon as I die… the communal life you’ve all been living will come to an end.”

Makoto homed in on Celes next. He called out to her with conviction.

“ **Celes** …! Don’t lose Hope now…!”

The gambler stared down at the floor as she gritted her teeth.

“Naegi-kun… I can’t do it.” Celes raised her head to look at him with a tear-stained face. “I can’t allow that bitch to decide if you live or not… That’s… That’s not a gamble even worth considering! I-I can’t ignore your well-being again… Maizono and I… both ignored that in the past. And it bit us in the ass.”

Makoto smiled wryly.

“A gamble even you can’t take…? That’s not like you, Celes!” He shook his head as her eyes widened at him in shock. “Listen… You’re not gonna find any European castles or fancy butlers in here, Celes… And I know… none of that stuff is worth it, if you don’t have anyone to share it with… But that’s why I’m saying! I’ll be right behind you, I promise! As your **knight** , I have to support you, too. I **want** to support you, because you’ve changed! You looked after everyone while I was away… so now that I’m back, I’m going to help! You’re not alone anymore!”

Celes trembled as Makoto’s words resonated within her heart. She bowed her head in shame.

“… Of course… I was a fool to think you wouldn’t feel that way, Naegi-kun…” She looked up with determination. “I failed my subjects in the past… Even tried to kill them… That fool Yamada died because of me… And I… I will **not** let the same befall you! W-We’ll… We’ll take this gamble together, Naegi-kun… Just don’t make me regret this second chance…!”

Makoto nodded fiercely in agreement. He wouldn’t let her down!

“All of you will have to leave.” Junko continued on. “You’ll have to go into the world outside, where only death and despair are waiting…”

Makoto turned to Togami next. He pointed and shouted at the heir, who appeared so uncertain.

“ **Togami** …! Don’t lose Hope now!”

Unlike the previous people he tried to encourage, Togami responded differently to his words.

“… What’s the matter?” The heir had his back to Naegi. “You’re not actually trying to encourage me, are you? Hmph. Ridiculous. It never even crossed my mind that I might give in to Despair. But don’t misunderstand me. I couldn’t care in the slightest what happens to you. I just have to keep my word. I swore I would end the life of the Mastermind. Besides, the Togami family **isn’t** dead… Because I’m still alive. So until I can restore the Togami family, and bring it greater glory than it’s ever known…!”

Makoto beamed at the heir’s confidence. He was glad that at least one of his friends wasn’t saddled by doubts… Or at least, not to the point of allowing them to dictate their actions. Togami and the luckster had usually butted heads in the past… But it felt like now they could agree on what mattered. And Makoto couldn’t be happier for it.

“So? What are you gonna do?” Junko pressed them all. “Will you just die? Is that what you want?”

There was two more he had to reach, however… Makoto turned to the bluenette standing next to him.

“ **Sayaka** …! Don’t lose Hope now!” He encouraged his idol.

Sayaka hugged herself, shivering. She looked to him anxiously.

“M-M-Makoto… I-I’m… I’m not like you… I’m not strong enough to keep on living in a world without you! I-I thought I could muster that courage, and live on in your memory… B-But… I… can’t…” The idol sobbed, tears dripping down her face.

Makoto placed a hand on her shoulder comfortingly, giving it a squeeze.

“Sayaka… I promised, didn’t I? I’m not going anywhere, not anymore. Junko’s trying to scare us into staying, but it’s not going to work! Our place is out there, helping everyone recover from Despair! Staying here… means we **have** to sacrifice someone to live. But going out there… Junko said it herself! She **gets to choose** if she takes someone with her or not! Even if the odds are against us… at least with that option, **everyone can live**! The possibility’s there!” The luckster missed the way Ikusaba stiffened at his words, but he didn’t miss how Sayaka’s eyes widened in shock. He grinned as reassuringly as he could. “I know you don’t think you’re all that strong, Sayaka… But truth is, you’re amazing! You’re the #1 idol in Japan, but you **also** resisted that urge to kill, you **also** forgave Celes and Ikusaba, and you **also** stayed loyal to Oogami, even when some of us turned against her! Heck, you even believed in Ikusaba when you thought I died! That takes a **huge** amount of willpower, Sayaka! I’m proud of you!!!”

Sayaka shook like a leaf under Makoto’s reassuring grip. She stared down at the floor, ashamed.

“Y-You’re right, Makoto… We… We can’t stay here… Not when it means sacrificing one of us in order to live… I-I… I can’t do that again. Not to you. Not to Ikusaba.” The idol held her head up high. “I’m going to believe in you, Ikusaba, and everyone else! We’re escaping **together**! That’s what we promised…!”

Makoto nodded firmly in agreement. At last, he turned his attention to the remaining member of their class… The one he felt concerned about, most of all.

“Ikusaba…? You heard that, right?” Makoto asked gently as the soldier’s gaze was transfixed on him. “Your sister deceived us all, even you! I’ve been saying all along I believed in you, in our friendship. And that hasn’t changed. If you could keep believing in me, even for just a little while longer… I promise… We’ll get you out of here, too! You’re not gonna die. I’m not gonna die. And if you’re burdened by guilt, if you want to atone for everything, I’ll stay by your side and help! You matter, just like the rest of us!”

“N-Naegi-kun…” Mukuro’s voice was fragile, and her body trembled before she squeezed her eyes shut tight. “Y-You always… You always were too kind for your own good… A-Always forgiving everyone who stepped on you, betrayed you… E-Even someone as worthless as me…”

Mukuro looked up with fierce determination.

“I promised I’d do **anything** to get you out of here! I thought… the only way to do that was to just give in, to die with my hands wrapped tight around Junko’s throat… But now I see that would only have hurt you more! I-I’m… I won’t vote to punish Hope. I-I could never vote to strand you all here, even if I’m still so scared about what comes next… S-So please… N-No matter what happens. Take care of me…”

Though her words still had a foreboding aura to them, Makoto could only nod firmly in acceptance.

“I promise, Ikusaba! You know me. I always look out for my friends!”

Mukuro smiled self-depreciatingly. She did know him… And that made what came next all the harder. But before that…

“P-Personally, thinking about it now, I-I don’t think you ended up here at Hope’s Peak because of luck or misfortune… Y-You… If Junko is the Ultimate Despair, then you’re the **Ultimate Hope**! That’s your real title!”

Junko, meanwhile, reeled back in anger and shock, glaring at Naegi.

“What… the hell? What the hell **are you**?! You sicken me… This is absolutely nauseating… Your **faces** , your **words** , your **interactions** … they **disgust me**! That doesn’t make you **cool** , y’know?! You’re **lame**! You’re lame, you’re lame, you’re lame! You suck! You suck, you suck, you suck, you suck…!”

Makoto closed his eyes in concentration.

_‘I’m not a world-class anything—nor would I say I have any special abilities worthy of calling ‘Hope’… However… However, I will not…!’_

And just like that, Junko and Makoto entered the final part of the debate – just between him and her. she threw insults and all sorts of negativity at him, but he shot through all those derogatory remarks…

“Despair of tomorrow! Despair of the unknown! Despair of your memories!” Junko taunted, but Makoto shook his head.

“Hope keeps on going…!” The Luckster proclaimed passionately. “I will not give up, and I will not give in. I will not grow weary of myself, or the world. I will not abandon the things and people I care about. And I will **not** succumb to Despair! I mean, my optimism is my one redeeming quality!”

Junko was at a total loss for words.

“What… the hell?! **What the freaking hell?!** ”

With the debate come to a close, Celes placed her hands on her hips and glanced around the room.

“It looks like we’re done here. I suppose it’s Ballot Time?”

Togami smirked, eyes closed.

“We cast our ballot with the switch here.”

“Okay! Here goes…!” Fujisaki cheered.

“Finally…! Time to end this fucking ‘game’…!” Mondo grinned.

“Let’s put an end to this Class Trial… and all the bloodshed it represents…” Makoto declared.

“With our own hands!” Sayaka agreed wholeheartedly.

Mukuro smiled mysteriously, having nothing else to add. They all cast their ballots… and the slot machine ended up on three faces of Junko. Despair was found Guilty… and Despair **would** be punished…

“Huh…? What just…” Junko trailed off in disbelief.

“Junko Enoshima… you lose.” Makoto asserted.

“Lose? Lose? I did? Th-That’s… **That’s** …!”

Mondo groaned.

“What now? You gonna deny it?”

Celes rolled her eyes.

“Figures. Even the **Ultimate Despair** is vulnerable to a dose of her own Despair…”

“Deny it all you want, it won’t change a thing!” Sayaka said firmly.

But Junko continued on…

“ **THAT’S—FREAKING AMAZING~!!** ” Junko grinned rather gleefully.

“H-Huh…?” Fujisaki didn’t understand… none of them did.

“This… **This** is Despair!” Junko cooed. “I came to this academy… two years ago… and I toiled away, crafting the most intricate plan… I was even gonna sacrifice my **sister** for its success! And yet, in the end, I **still** failed! There is no greater Despair in this world!”

“Wh-What… What are you talking about?” Makoto wanted to try and understand, even if Junko was perhaps the evilest person he’d ever met.

“I was Despairingly hopeless! From the moment I came into this world, I was tired of everything!” Junko gushed. “So I’ve been looking forward to this moment… this once-in-a-lifetime experience… my whole life… My first and last chance to experience the most awesome Despair! The moment of my death! And to experience it alongside the world-class Despair of my project’s failure… Ahh! I’m so hopelessly ecstatic!”

“Is she… happy?” Fujisaki asked warily.

“In any event… you admit defeat, yes?” Celes asked for clarification.

“Aha… Ahahahaha! It doesn’t really matter whether I’ve won or lost! ‘Cause, either way, it’s all the same for **you guys** , in the end… Despair outside, and Despair inside! There’s nothing but Despair for you!” Junko just continued to giggle away, lost in a euphoria of Despair.

That’s why… She missed Mukuro completely as she made her move. Then again, with the sheer power and speed the Ultimate Soldier possessed, there was **no way** Junko could have resisted, anyway. The soldier hoisted the blonde up by her collar, with both hands. And the look on her face… It was the darkest, coldest, most unforgiving glare that any of them had seen yet.

Junko merely blinked as she registered the situation she was in.

“… Uh-oh…”

“I… I-Ikusaba?!” Makoto cried out distressfully. Mukuro, for once, ignored him.

Junko could tell, just by looking. Her sister only had eyes for her. That potent darkness sent shivers down even **her** spine… And she grinned in spite of it.

“Okay~… I give up! I surrendered already… Tell her, Naegi-chan!” Junko hung lazily in the air. Though the way she presented herself was submissive, the way her eyes were scrutinizing Ikusaba told a different story. She was waiting for further information to analyze, and exploit if she could. As things stood, the ball was in Ikusaba’s court… for now…

“I-Ikusaba!” Makoto called out again. “It’s okay…! It’s over now! N-Nobody else has to die…!”

Mukuro shook her head gravely, eyes never leaving Junko as she continued to hoist the blonde in the air without wavering.

“No. This was always going to end one way, Naegi-kun… I’m sorry, but it’s the truth. **Junko dies**.”

Junko tilted her head curiously as the luckster was left floundering hopelessly.

“You know, I’ve been curious ever since you talked back to me in the Headmaster’s Office… What brought this sudden change on~? You never had a backbone in your spineless body, sis~… This is **much** more exciting!”

“What makes you think it was sudden…?” Mukuro darkly threw the question back at her. “ **You never appreciated me**. I overlooked the attempts on my life because we were sisters, took **all** your shit because I thought **maybe** you’d love me, someday, but then you crossed the fucking line… Targeting Naegi-kun, throwing him into a game where he and his friends killed each other, where he would be betrayed over and over… **Who said you had the fucking right to do that**?”

Junko went very still at the soldier’s rant. She then cracked up and burst into harsh laughter.

“You’re **seriously** gonna ask that?! Mukuro-nee… **you’re** the one that allowed it!” Junko grinned darkly down at the soldier as her eyes widened a fraction, affronted by the accusation. “You know me, sis~… All I’ve **ever** been about is Despair! And you **still** followed me like a damn lapdog, whining and begging and hoping that **someday** I’d give a shit about you?! Words cannot express my utter **disappointment**! If all it took to get you to snap was threatening Naegi-chan, I woulda done that at orientation two fucking years ago!”

Mukuro, too, went very still.

“… That’s true, isn’t it…? All this time… you never cared… All you’ve ever done… is try to kill me. Destroy every aspect of me – my pride, my intelligence, my self-worth, my mercy, my self-identity… my love… I bet if you could, you’d erase me atom by atom. Molecule by molecule… And even after, you’d **still** go after Naegi-kun, too… Because he was important to me.”

Junko flashed a bright grin.

“Is atomic dismantling still on the table? That sounds **fun** ~…” Junko’s face then became blank. “But y’know, you’re still totally wrong about something… After all~! If I never cared, I wouldn’t have tried destroying your very essence, y’know? You’re my **sister** ~… To kill you so utterly and completely… I want a taste of that Despair before I move onto the **Greatest Despair of all**! It’s on my bucket list, bitch!”

Having said that, Junko abruptly whipped out the survival knife from her skirt. It came as no surprise to Mukuro, who knew Junko had to have kept it since it wasn’t on Kirigiri’s body in the morgue… As Junko swung the blade down, Mukuro batted the hand away, making Junko drop the knife. She then brought Junko down to her level and slugged her in the face roughly. The fashionista giggled hysterically as a trail of blood seeped out of the corner of her mouth.

“I-I knew ya cared, too, sis~! **This** is primo mega Despair right here~!” Junko grinned madly.

Mukuro’s glare became as dark as the Data Processing Room had been, and as cold as an arctic blizzard. At this point, the line between her and that crueler aspect of herself was nonexistent. It was no longer a question of who was in control…

Because they both wanted this. Mukuro just wasn’t going to laugh while she did every part of Junko’s completely deserved execution… That’s not to say she wouldn’t enjoy it, however…

“Ikusaba…! Please stop…!” Makoto made an earnest plea again.

“Th-This isn’t you…!” Sayaka tried to be a voice of reason as well.

The others stayed quiet, but Mukuro knew that was because they were either too scared… or they approved of Mukuro’s mission. All the same, the soldier wrinkled her nose. Not who she was? What did any of them know about **who she was**? If Junko had been right about one thing… just one thing… It was that Despair had been all she had known, for much of her life.

Only now Mukuro was realizing **she didn’t want it** … And the **only way** she could hope to move on with her life… The **only way** she could sleep soundly at night… was if she ended Junko’s life by her own hands.

Even still, Mukuro sounded far more desperate than she intended as she whirled on both the luckster and idol.

“Look at what she did to us!” The soldier raged, body trembling. “What we could have **had**! **She has to pay**! So either **help** me or get out of the way…!”

It was Makoto’s quiet voice and hurt gaze that broke Mukuro down, however.

“But Ikusaba… What will vengeance solve…?” Makoto pleaded.

Mukuro trembled even worse. She averted her gaze as she spoke bitterly.

“If anyone deserves vengeance here, Naegi-kun… It’s you. And… And I’m going to wield that scythe for you. F-For both of us…” She looked back at him with grim determination. “Because this isn’t just about us! Junko ruined more than just **our** lives… Sh-She needs to p-pay…!”

That last part was just an excuse, and even Makoto could see that… Mukuro was hurting. And she was upset on his behalf because she cared so much for him… He dipped his head in shame, unable to think of more reassuring words to say.

But Junko had seen all that she needed to see. Mukuro was a maelstrom of Despair waiting to be unleashed, and the fashionista could see that even now, she was holding herself back because they were **family**. Mukuro didn’t even know it herself, despite being so pissed she found it hard to breathe, she was looking for every excuse to call this off. To **not** go all the way. And she found an excuse easily enough in her boytoy…

Junko wasn’t having that. From one Ultimate Despair to another, Mukuro deserved every bit of what she was going to do next…

“Aww~… You really don’t get it!” Junko held up a small remote in her hand that Mukuro didn’t recognize; the fashionistas eyes were a bottomless abyss of darkness and Despair. “Neechan. You’re gonna listen for once in your fucking miserable life, and you’re gonna listen good. It’s me or Naegi-chan, just like it’s always been… But this time I’m not messin’ around, maggot! You will **execute me** … You will watch **every second** of what you have done, and you will **smile**. Because if I sense any fucking hesitation, Naegi-chan **dies**! **Do you understand** …?”

Mukuro did hear Junko… she did understand. Hell, part of her was screaming to just do it right here and now – choke Junko out. Snap her neck. Arms, legs, whatever…

But Mukuro was a soldier. And so…

“What… do you want me to do…?” Mukuro asked robotically. As easy as it would be to try and smack that controller out of Junko’s hand… she couldn’t be sure it would work as well as it did earlier with the knife. All Junko had to do was press a button… And Mukuro wasn’t about to release Junko to helplessly try and save Naegi-kun when just about anything could happen…

Best to follow Junko’s orders… one last time…

Junko swayed her hips merrily, even while she was still manhandled.

“Such a good little gofer~…! I **knew** I could count on ya, sis~! Just trust me, this is going to be aaawwweeesssooommmeee~!” Junko gave a Cheshire grin. “I know ya see that red button over there… You’re gonna push it. And you’re gonna do everything I said, got it? Watch… and **smile**! **Enjoy** yourself, neechan… Because this is just as much for you as it is for me~… We have **no Hope** for our lives! You want me dead just as much as I wanna be killed by **you** ~! I said nothing could trump the failure of my life’s work, but **this** … No, this is somehow **much** better than I could have hoped for~! **You’re going to be spectacular**! **NOW LET’S PLAY BALL**!!!”

Slowly, Mukuro indeed moved to comply. Against protests from her precious Naegi-kun… and even her own conscience, she carried out Junko’s orders, hand hovering above the red button. Junko laughed and launched into one more passionate monologue as Mukuro continued holding her up.

“Upupu… Upupupu! Ahh, so this is **death’s Despair** … It’s exquisite! I wish I could have shared even just ten percent… no, even just one percent of this Despair… with the rest of the world! I wish I could have taken the world and coated it in this marvelous Despair! Now, let’s begin! I have **a very special punishment** reserved for last…! Let’s get this ball rollin’! IIIT’S PUNISHMENT TIIIME! AHAHAHAHAHA!”

With that crazed speech given, her eyes swirling deeply with Despair, Mukuro finally pressed down on the button… And the usual sequence began. The screens over the survivors read, “Congratulations! Junko Enoshima has been found guilty. Commencing execution…” An 8-bit sprite version of Junko walked off the screens with Monokuma gleefully, rather than being dragged like the past murderers had been…

And through it all, Mukuro watched **every second**. She dare not look away.

It wasn’t a single execution. Junko was put through a montage of executions… One where she sat on a motorcycle that ran around in a motorcycle cage that was electrified. One where she had to operate a computer to defuse a countdown… and was summarily given the electric chair for successfully defusing it. There was one where she had to sing and hit the notes of a karaoke song, to fill a score meter until it was full, and dance over a beartrap along the edge of the stage; the trap snaps closed just as she’s about to fill the meter all the way. There was one where she had to navigate a field of landmines, and failed to do anything when Monokuma flew by in a bomber plane and dropped a nuke. There was, “The Burning of the Versailles Witch,” where she was in the midst of burning flames, and then crushed by a firetruck. There was one where she was trapped in an airtight, ironclad safe… which then had all the air sucked out of it, and she was violently bounced along the walls from the abrupt, powerful suction. There was, “The Space Journey,” where she went up in a rocket and swiftly came crashing back down.

There’d been one execution for each of them. Makoto had a feeling the last one would’ve been reserved for him…

Finally… There was the **Detention** execution. The one that failed for Kirigiri. Junko sat in a chair, without a desk, as the conveyer belt carried her back to a giant metal cube that would utterly crush her… She was holding Monokuma in her lap, flashing a victory sign, and shooting them all a Cheshire grin. Her attitude made them think she would back out at the last second…

But she never resisted. Instead, her focus was on Mukuro… She held up the controller from earlier, and Mukuro closed her eyes, taking a shuddering breath. She then opened her eyes… **and smiled** … Soon enough, Junko was under the cube. She tossed away the controller, and pulled out a different one that Mukuro did recognize. The mechanism temporarily stopped, making even fashionista think it had malfunctioned again… But just as she looked up… It slammed down on her **hard**. There was a thick, goopy noise as her blood splattered all over, indicating her death was not faked…

Junko Enoshima was, without a doubt, permanently dead…

And what they all presumed to be the escape switch, the last thing she’d been holding aside from Monokuma, was lying a little away from the cube that had crushed Enoshima, and had ceased working the moment it crushed her. The switch was coated in blood now, but it was otherwise undamaged.

They would finally be able to escape… The final Class Trial… Junko Enoshima, the Ultimate Despair… their lives at the academy… The game was totally, completely over.

Slowly… Mukuro fell to her knees as a surge of emotions welled up inside. Churned in her gut violently, suffocated her even worse than the sludgy darkness had in all the days before this very moment. Junko Enoshima was dead… and Mukuro Ikusaba shouldered total responsibility for it.

Mukuro clung to Makoto as he moved in to comfort her. She tried to hold onto his soothing promises that it was all going to be okay…

_‘Looks like ya finally lost it, eh…? Finally snapped~… In death, Junko-chan set us free… And if we can kill our own flesh and blood, then we can do **anything**! You crossed the blood red line, Muku~… There’s nooo turning back…’ _

But she knew better. Mukuro wasn’t okay…

Her mind was ripping itself apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Super Duper Nasty Torture: Survivor Edition~ 
> 
> Whooo's happy Christmas came early? XD Grizzly, messy, goopy Christmas, indeed... 
> 
> This is the longest chapter yet. And yeah, I'm sure I could've done certain parts a lot better... But overall, I think the final product here will suffice. I was especially proud of Makoto's pep talks and Mukuro's inevitable breaking point towards the end... I dunno~ Something about how MESSY it turned out... Muku-chan is feeling happiness, grief, and everything in-between... all at once... 
> 
> It's gonna make for an interesting epilogue, that's for sure. :D 
> 
> I also enjoyed envisioning those class pictures, though. Since we had different survivors and all. n_____n All that's left is epilogue and bonus content... Two more chapters to go~... I hope you guys enjoyed this, at least a little.


	29. Epilogue: Goodbye Despair Academy

It was over, but the building didn’t go down in a Hollywood-style explosion, and it didn’t all fade to black… It didn’t end in extravagant, flowery detail, nor, really, did anything ending-like happen at all. Everything remained the same.

Well… except one thing.

The AC stopped. The thing that Junko called the “air purifier”… shut down. That was it. They would have a little precious time to collect anything they might need to go out into a world that was purportedly war-torn and enveloped in chaos and Despair… But then they would **have** to leave. They wouldn’t be able to stay.

… Not that they intended to in the first place… But this, was their **Farewell to Despair Academy** …

~*~

Sayaka blinked as she heard sounds from within the hatch. Her luckster was coming back up the ladder. She helped him up as he reached the top.

“Find anything useful down there?” The idol noted a small album that he had tucked under his chin as he climbed the short length back up to the control room.

Makoto smiled sheepishly and handed the album over, rubbing the back of his head..

“Not really… Like Ikusaba said, it was Enoshima’s ‘room’ for the duration of the game, and that was the only worthwhile thing up here. The room’s barely even half the size ours were… She pretty much camped down there, and I guess restocked on food at night while we were asleep.” The luckster shrugged haplessly. “A sleeping bag, small fridge, spare clothes, a teddy bear version of Monokuma, it was pretty Spartan down there… Makes ya wonder why she kept that skeleton key in the Headmaster’s Office when she could’ve kept it down there. Pretty sure Ikusaba wouldn’t have reached it there.”

The bluenette rolled her eyes, but not without any real annoyance to the action.

“Maybe there wasn’t enough ‘Despair’ in that…”

Makoto chuckled again, scratching his cheek.

“I’m just saying, she had weird priorities! Our class pictures were too much to be left out in the open, but a key that opens every door in the academy isn’t?” He smiled as that elicited a tinkling giggle from the pop sensation.

“Look at you, trying to understand girls~… Who’s to say she didn’t want a late night visitor to ‘cuddle’ at night?” Sayaka grinned mischievously as that made Makoto blush harder than he had in a while. She wasn’t entirely comfortable joking about Enoshima like this, but Makoto’s flustered faces were the cutest… “Maybe I should have been the one to go down there, after all~! Who’s to say you didn’t take any ‘souvenirs’ for the road?”

Makoto’s face grew pinker as his eyes widened in panic and terror. He waved his hands defensively.

“I-I-I didn’t take anything like **that** , honest!” The luckster pouted as the idol just laughed more at his expense. He moaned. “Sayakaaaaa…!”

Sayaka merely patted his head affectionately, smile softening.

“I know. You’re not the kind of guy to cheat… That’s why you’re only allowed to take mine, got it?” As steam came off his cheeks and he averted his gaze to the floor in heavier embarrassment, a tempting idea sprang to mind for the idol. _‘Well, who knows when our next chance to be alone will be…?’_

Damning the torpedoes, Sayaka suddenly leaned in and planted a tender kiss on his cheek. She considered going all the way with a lip lock, but… She was flustered, too, y’know? If they had really been a couple, she was wary of… old instincts taking over and scaring the luckster away.

… Because it would have been criminally negligent to be in a secret relationship with **this** adorable face and **not** take every opportunity to pepper him with butterfly kisses…

A girl knows what she wants, y’know?

All good things come to an end, however, and Sayaka pulled away with a blissful sigh and contented grin. Her crush certainly didn’t disappoint – that pink dusted face transformed into a steaming bright red, stuttering mess.

“Wh-Wh-Wh-What was **that** for, Sayaka?!” The luckster cried out, teeth chattering as he grazed his fingers against his cheek in disbelief.

Melodious giggles burst forth from the idol as she read him like an open book. He really was too modest and humble…

“I’m thanking you, you silly boy~…” Sayaka tilted her head innocently at his genuine confusion. “You stuck with me until the very end, and we’re about to get out of here, just like you promised! Why wouldn’t I kiss you?”

Makoto dipped his head in embarrassment, mumbling excuses.

“It’s not like I did everything… We worked together! A-And you’re probably better saving those for your future boyfriend anyway… I’m nowhere near your league…”

Sayaka sighed internally, smiling wryly at the brunet. She knew that was his line of thought… This was her fault. If she had just taken the initiative back in middle school, maybe Makoto would have caught on by now. There were guys out there who were cockier, more aggressive, and more physically attractive than this sweet boy here… Guys who, at least at one point, fantasized about her. Dreamed of a future with her. And they were all devoid of charm… Sayaka didn’t care about pedigree – she didn’t even think she had a ‘type’.

… Unless Makoto constituted a ‘type’. Then she was all aboard the Makoto Hype Train~

Regardless… Makoto was too hard on himself. His self-esteem was always at an all-time low, and nobody bothered to help him fix it. Makoto always tried his best… and he needed to see the results more than spoke for themselves.

Good thing this is what Assistants were for~…

“Makoto… I’m going tell you something that I should have told you a long time ago…” At his perplexed expression, the idol beamed. “And you don’t have to give me an answer right here~… If you need time, I’m not going to be mad. But… I honestly want you to know this is how I really feel about you, okay?”

At her luckster’s uncertain nod, Sayaka took a deep breath and mentally prepared herself. She clapped her cheeks to shake off any last-minute hesitation and took the plunge.

“I love you.”

“…”

~*~

Mondo, his pickaxe tucked over his leather jacket’s collar, placed his hand on the fridge in front of him. He didn’t have the heart to open it up again… not after seeing what was left of the body inside.

“Bro.” The biker took a deep, ragged breath before releasing it slowly. He clenched his free hand into a fist and squeezed his eyes shut. “We did it. We… We kicked that bear’s ass! We’re free…”

Mondo slumped tiredly as this was still dawning on him, even now. The finality of it all. Unbidden, anguished cries bubbled up in his memory.

_“After I was nearly skewered by spears… it hit me hard that this was all real. That as much as I believed in Mondo, Monokuma could get to him! And I… just didn’t want Mondo to die…”_

A desire wasted because of those damn cameras broadcasting their lives like a damn TV show… But Ishimaru had still fought so hard for him.

Mondo trembled as tears threatened to burst out of him. He wiped at his blurry eyes instinctively with his sleeve, gritting his teeth as he glared at the floor.

“Damnit, it was supposed to be me… Why did **you** have to die?! Why… didn’t you just leave me be…” The biker trailed off hoarsely, feeling so hollow. He had said things… that could never be taken back. And despite having every reason to hate or fear him, Taka sacrificed his own life just so Mondo wouldn’t cave to Monokuma’s motive… One life for another. Just like Daiya had before him.

An older brother for a boneheaded younger brother. A squeaky clean honors student for a dumbass rebel.

It wasn’t fair…

“Oowada…?”

Mondo craned his head at the familiar voice. The programmer was standing nervously at the entrance of the Bio Lab, watching him with concern.

“Fujisaki…” The biker acknowledged him, averting his gaze after a few moments and not moving from his spot. “C’mon in, kid. I was just sayin’ my farewells before setting out.”

Fujisaki’s eyes widened in realization.

“O-Oh…! Th-That’s right… You and Ikusaba said this was where everyone was stored, after the murders…” The programmer fidgeted and ambled on over, looking over the refrigerators. “Oogami and Kirigiri are resting here…”

Mondo nodded faintly.

“Bro, Yamada, and Asahina, too. Everyone’s here. It doesn’t feel **right** , y’know? I’m still kickin’, but all these guys and chicks aren’t? It… It feels like I robbed them.”

Chihiro patted Mondo’s arm sympathetically.

“Y-You didn’t rob them, Oowada… It’s just…” The programmer tapped his chin uncertainly. “It’s just how things turned out! Everyone wants to live… A-And unfortunately… n-not everyone will make it… Enoshima… was the one responsible for all their deaths… B-But she failed to kill us, s-so I want to live for them! I-Is that okay…?”

Mondo smiled bitterly as he glanced at his friend. He shook his head ruefully.

“’Course it is, kid. That’s exactly what we gotta do. We owe it to ‘em!” He punched his palm to raise his own spirits back up.

Fujisaki looked back to the refrigerators with a frown.

“I-I hope we can come back here someday…”

Mondo raised his eyebrows in confusion.

“Eh? Why?”

Fujisaki chewed his lower lip anxiously.

“W-Well… To give everyone a proper burial… P-Preserving their bodies is fine, but… it doesn’t feel… respectful, to just keep them here, ya know?” Fujisaki bowed his head as he felt uncertain about what he was trying to convey. “I-I’m sorry! M-Maybe leaving them here is f-fine…”

The programmer jumped a little and made a small gasp at the hand that reassuringly gripped his shoulder. He peered up to see Oowada with a faraway look in his eyes.

“Kid, don’t apologize! You’re right… The dead… deserve to be honored! When we save their families, they deserve closure, too! We’re not… We’re not just gonna leave them here, where they died. That ain’t right.”

Nervously, Fujisaki nodded in agreement. That’s what he felt, too. It’d be nice… to hold a funeral, after everything settled down. That could be… their real final goodbye to everyone…

“C’mon, kid…” Mondo patted the programmer’s shoulder comfortingly. “Let’s go. We’ll definitely be back.”

The biker began to depart, and Fujisaki moved to follow. But he spared one last look at the refrigerators, mumbling under his breath.

“B-Bye, everyone… I w-won’t forget you! Thanks… for everything…” And he meant it. Fujisaki didn’t even bother to think about the various reasons for why they died; in the end, it’s not how you died, it’s how you lived. And every single person in these refrigerators… **lived**. They created irreplaceable memories together. Memories that Junko took away… and memories that she didn’t.

Fujisaki absolutely wouldn’t forget them. And he knew… his friends felt the same way…

~*~

Mukuro reclined against the left wall of the entrance hall, knees drawn close to her chest. She was in a staring contest with the only other person in the room. The air was tense because of it.

“You gonna stare all day?” The soldier deadpanned. “Figured the mighty Byakuya Togami would be collecting that money Junko left lying around somewhere… She wasn’t lying, y’know? Your empire’s been reduced to rubble and ash.”

Togami scoffed snidely.

“I’ll have hired help carrying it when we return… I’m not in such a rush that I’ll drag around ten billion yen like a common cat burglar. But I will be claiming it… that much I assure you. Your sister has incurred quite the debt with her theatrics, and I intend to collect every last pound of flesh for it.”

Mukuro shrugged nonchalantly.

“Don’t blame me when Ultimate Despair or some hobo nicks it. Hope’s Peak is gonna be robbed blind, once we crack it open.”

Togami scowled, crossing his arms.

“As irritating as your sister was, she had a point – you’ve developed quite the scathing tongue. You’re different.” His eyes bored into her own. “… In more ways than one.”

Mukuro continued to silently deadpan at the heir.

“…”

~*~

_Mukuro clung to the luckster as her eyes ached and her head pounded. The weight of what she had just done grew impossible to bear, and she **hated** the inconsistency of her own emotions!_

_Junko was dead._

_Junko, the sister she abandoned when she went to join Fenrir because she felt like it. Junko, her own flesh and blood. Junko, who opened her back with open arms when she returned from Europe… Junko, who gave her **purpose** …_

_Junko was dead._

_Junko, who insulted her, never appreciated her. Junko, who plotted the world’s destruction. Junko, who used her to cause suffering to so many people. Junko, who never cared about her feelings. Junko, who wanted to kill her… no, not just **kill**. **Wipe out entirely**. Heart, mind, soul, body… Junko, who wanted to **hurt Naegi-kun** …_

_Junko was **dead because of her**. _

_This made Mukuro **happy**._

_Finally, no more suffering, no more pain! Mukuro wouldn’t have to worry about sacrificing **everything** to please that ungrateful **bitch**. No longer would Mukuro have to worry about Junko getting her grubby hands on Naegi-kun again. **Naegi-kun was safe**. His friends were safe. Mukuro was… Mukuro could **be with Naegi-kun** , **without shame or doubts**._

_This made Mukuro **sad**._

_Mukuro hadn’t wanted it to go this far. Junko was a monster. But she had still been **family**. And Naegi-kun had wanted to **try** reforming her… **Naegi-kun never made her choose**! Naegi-kun and his feelings **mattered**. Even if Junko hurt her so much, Mukuro had wanted to give Naegi-kun his chance to help her, too… After all, Mukuro herself was a monster… And Naegi-kun **gave her a chance**. _

_He gave her a chance…_

_This made Mukuro **angry**._

_Even in death, Junko was such a **bitch**! How dare she go out like this? Going out **on her terms**? Mukuro should’ve said to hell with it and snapped Junko’s neck right then and there. Mukuro deserved to end it how **she** wanted, not how Junko wanted it to! This had been **her** moment! **Her** revenge! Not to mention Junko had **threatened** Naegi-kun to the bitter end… First by thrusting that impossible vote on all of them, and then by holding his life in the palm of her hand… **Junko deserved death**. But she deserved so much worse than she received. _

_Mukuro wasn’t experiencing these all one at a time. They came together in an unholy medley, tramping about in her head in a disorderly march. Different thoughts occurred to her at breakneck speeds, forcing Mukuro to cycle through them a few times before they finally registered in her mind._

_This was a hollow victory. Mukuro knew that. And her head **hurt**. It hurt! It hurt! **It hurt**!_

_“Ikusaba… I’m here.”_

_Mukuro’s breath hitched as she registered the luckster’s words. She trembled and clung to him so hard that she was sure he was feeling pain, too… But Mukuro couldn’t help it. She **needed** him, now more than ever. His comforting arms felt like branding irons at her side, and it felt so **wrong** taking advantage of his kindness like this… _

_But Mukuro **needed him**. He made her stable before. Made the pain **bearable**. _

_**And it just wasn’t working this time**._

_No matter how she clung, silently begged and pleaded… The pain would not ebb or recede this time. That other part of herself… had been right. She crossed the line that she shouldn’t have. The line she **wanted** to cross, if only to **finally** find peace… The line she **deserved** to cross… A line that shouldn’t have **mattered** , with everything she had done up until this moment…_

_Except it did matter. Junko was dead and she could **never** take that back. Junko was dead… And now there was nothing she couldn’t do. Because what did it matter anymore? Mukuro was already the scum of the earth because of the shit Junko made her do and the assignments Fenrir gave to her. Future Foundation was already going to execute her ass. But now she was a kinslayer, too, and that made her even more impossible to forgive. _

_Mukuro was alone… She was miserable and wretched and she **didn’t regret that Junko was dead**! Even if it did make her sad… she still didn’t **regret** it. _

_Mukuro had no future. She would stay by Naegi-kun out of impulse, but that was just going to dig her own grave because the Future Foundation would be all over him and his friends. Even if she ran… she’d just be hunted for the rest of eternity. Staying with Naegi-kun was just as much of a surrender on her part as much as it was a necessity to **try** and stabilize her war-ravaged mind. _

_**And it wasn’t working now**. Because she had crossed that fucking red line. _

_Despair… Hope… What a cruel joke, fighting over such garbage ideals. Neither of them was going to make this any better for her. Despair ruined her. Hope gave her the awareness that she was ruined… and irredeemable. They were both **utterly useless to her**._

_“I-I’m s-so sorry, Naegi-kun…” Mukuro sniffled into his shoulder, loosening her hold on him ever so marginally._

_Makoto’s brow furrowed in concern._

_“S-Sorry? For what…?”_

_Mukuro drew back from the luckster, hands still on his shoulders and eyes closed._

_“For everything… You didn’t deserve any of this. Not the killings, not your friends backstabbing each other, not the world ending…” Mukuro bowed again, eyes slowly opening as she gazed down at the floor despondently. “You shouldn’t even have to bother with trash like me…”_

_“Y-You’re not trash!” Makoto blurted out on impulse. But then… he registered her eyes. “I-Ikusaba…!”_

_Mukuro looked back up at him forlornly. A flurry of emotions and thoughts blowing through her mind with the speed and force of hurricane winds._

_Her irises were practically glowing red… No Despair Video necessary. This was all natural._

~*~

“Just come out and say it.” Mukuro snapped. Her patience with the heir had run dry long ago. “You never trusted me. Why start now?”

Togami snorted derisively.

“I had reason to distrust you, don’t forget that… I’ve moved past that, however. … For the most part.” His scowl deepened as he looked off to the side. “You are unstable… But you were pushed to that point. You’re as much a victim as us. The others will frown and quibble over your action of slaying your sister… But as one who has gone to war, I know a necessary evil when I see one. Forced or not, you earned that right to execute her. Though it has warped you. Your resolve was incomplete, and now you suffer the consequences.”

Mukuro reclined her head and gazed up at the ceiling uncaringly. So **now** Togami came around and tried ‘understanding’ her? Just kill her now… No matter what kind of past he may have had, it was all cherubic and paved with gold compared to the shitshow she went through…

Mondo. Mondo understood. And Naegi-kun cared for everybody. This asshole here… was several lifetimes away from empathizing with her. Naegi-kun was a number to him, and she was just a ‘former’ enemy, still possible threat. It wasn’t worth puzzling over his pointless attempts at ‘understanding’…

Togami only lived because of Naegi-kun. He had no idea how easy it would be for her now, to slit his throat and be done with him… It’d be a reflex. And Mukuro wouldn’t lose sleep over it.

The pain in her head had transitioned to a dull throb by now… But it was still there. Ultimate Despairs adjusted to this impulsive **need** to sow Despair and experience it… But Mukuro suspected that was a result of the brainwashing’s influence. Mukuro’s Despair was all natural… so she had nothing to numb the pain, no artificial interference to tell her what to do.

Despair sucked. Hope sucked.

Mukuro wished she could throw herself into a new mission already… But what could possibly compare to that rush of murdering her own sister? Nothing.

She was going to be stuck with this migraine until Future Foundation executed her, wasn’t she?

~*~

Sayaka hummed innocently as she carefully brought Makoto down the stairs to the third floor. Some might accuse her of ‘dragging’ him, but… That wasn’t true! Makoto was just… taking a nap! And while she did have the strength to carry him on level ground, stairs were gonna be a problem. She wasn’t **that** OP.

… He was so cute when he was passed out like this.

As she reached the base of the stairs and scooped him up again, she froze at the voice behind her.

“What are you doing?”

Sayaka’s beam became strained as she slowly turned around to face the gambler.

“.. Nothing~!” Was the melodious reply. Because it was. This was **nothing**! Makoto was her responsibility, this was part of her duties as his Assistant. Nobody would ever change her mind on that.

Celes clicked her tongue, hands on her hips.

“You overwhelmed him, didn’t you? How typical of you. Gluttonously indulging without thinking of him… Did you pick that up from the industry, or were you always this selfish?”

A dark aura sparked around Sayaka in response to the barb.

“Celes-chan, you’d have the high ground if you hadn’t fucked up, too. We’re both in the wrong. You’re just jealous I got to him first~…” Because of course she had. Sayaka was used to fighting for what she wanted. You needed to have **initiative** to get anywhere in the world, and the idol had already slipped up enough times with her luckster to know if she had hesitated back there, she would have lost him.

None of them knew when they would get “alone” time again, after escaping. Was she bold? Blunt? Yes, but that sweet summer child Makoto Naegi never would have crossed the fragile line between friendship and lovers – he was too worried about her ‘career’. Whatever might have been left of it, after all this. And if he just kept assuming she was playing around with him…

Well. Sayaka **wasn’t** playing around. That was the simple, honest truth.

She had him once before. She’d have him once again, damnit.

Celes radiated a dark aura that rivaled Sayaka’s. Always rubbing it in about how ‘close’ she and the luckster was, when the ‘prim and proper’ Sayaka Maizono just wasn’t allowing anyone else to get a moment with Naegi-kun… Maizono was territorial as hell, but Celes was used to fighting for what she wanted, too. Taeko Yasuhiro’s beginnings were as humble as Naegi-kun’s – she could perfectly understand him being overwhelmed by the idol’s brutish advances.

He would need breathing room when he woke up. And preferably that fresh air would be outside the range of this smug harlot… What the gambler would do to wipe that grin right off Maizono’s fa…

Makoto stirred in Sayaka’s arms, cutting off the tension in the air instantly. The luckster blearily opened his eyes.

“Uhhh… S-Sayaka…?” He paled as he registered he was in her arms, and she didn’t look too keen on setting him down anytime soon. “O-Oh… Th-Th-That really happened didn’t it…?”

He flushed beet red as Sayaka nodded happily and chirped an affirmative. He buried his face in his hands in embarrassment. Before Sayaka could take advantage of the situation, Celes cleared her throat, launching her counterattack.

“Naegi-kun, could I speak to you?” The gambler paused, narrowing her eyes at the idol who glared right back. “… In private?”

Makoto craned his head and peeked over at Celes.

“H-Huh… Oh… Y-Yeah, Celes, that’s fine…” Sayaka still wasn’t setting him down. “U-Uh… Sayaka…?”

The idol was still scowling fiercely at her rival. Sharp, using Makoto’s kind and helpful nature like that… He wouldn’t deny a ‘friend in need’ like that.

Celes would be watched. But it’s not like she could deny those pleading eyes from Makoto… Damnit.

~*~

Makoto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as he and Celes were left alone in the art storage room. They’d need to join the others downstairs soon, but he wasn’t against granting his friend a few minutes to just… talk. The final trial and all that came with it weighed heavily on them all, Makoto knew.

“Thanks for the, er… break, Celes…” He chuckled wryly. “I-I needed a sec to let that sink in…”

Celes cupped her hands under her chin and beamed radiantly.

“Ufufu. But of course~… Mercilessly teasing my Knight is **my** job. I will not let a childish bully have her ecchi way with you, Naegi-kun~!”

Makoto scratched his cheek nervously, unsure how to feel about how she phrased that.

“R-Right… S-So, uh… What’s up?”

Celes thoughtfully paused. She **could** launch into what she wanted to say…

“… About those pregnancy results I brought up, a while back…”

… Or she could milk this. Sayaka wanted a fight? Celes would give her a war.

Makoto went beet red again as he stared at her with wide, panicked eyes.

“Y-Y-You said that was a j-joke…!” His teeth chattered, feeling incredibly flustered.

Celes tilted her head innocently.

“No, I did not. I simply said ‘wrong results’, remember?” She cupped her chin again pleasantly. “You were overwhelmed by your graduation to C-Rank, I know~ But it’s true, Naegi-kun. Before the memory wipe, we must have been quite… intimate…”

Makoto wilted under the tender tone she spoke that word. Th-This… This didn’t sound like a joke… And they **had** become amnesiacs through this… He covered his face in embarrassment.

“Mom and dad are gonna kill me…” He paled further. “… Unless Sayaka gets to me first…”

Never underestimate a woman scorned.

Celes giggled melodiously.

“Ufufu… Oh, Naegi-kun, you’re much too fun to tease~” At his gobsmacked expression, she placed her hands on her hips and nodded with a straight face. “It was a jest. Do you really think Headmaster or Hope’s Peak would have pregnancy sticks lying around?”

“W-Well, Junko could have snuck them in to mess with us…” Makoto scratched his cheek sheepishly as he relaxed. He breathed a sigh of relief.

Who joked about such a thing so casually?!

“Not that I would have minded, if that really were the case.” Celes added conversationally. Makoto, assuming she was referring to Junko messing with them, furrowed his brow in bewilderment. “Siring my children would be the highest honor for my Knight, but I think I would enjoy the prospect just as much if they were your children… You’re one-of-a-kind, Naegi-kun. I can’t imagine I would have made it through this ordeal without you.”

Makoto went as white as a sheet as Celes’s intentions became clear.

“D-Don’t tell me…!” The luckster honestly felt like he’d been saying that far too much lately, but he didn’t know what else to say in these shocking moments. He honestly hadn’t seen **any** of this coming. Sayaka, he’d had at least an inkling, but he felt it was just him being too optimistic when he saw the hints.

But Celes, too?!

The gambler smiled bittersweetly at his disbelief. She was being a hypocrite, considering she lectured Sayaka on this very behavior… But the idol had been right. They were both screw-ups, so naturally they’d make similar mistakes.

… Celes just intended to be more lenient on the luckster. Because what right did she have to impose on him?

“Naegi-kun, I will be upfront with you. Out of everyone that was here, you were the only one to catch my eye. That ‘interest’ grew over time… But the longer we remained here, the more my fear grew.” Celes closed her eyes calmly. “Threatening our loved ones, revealing our most closely guarded secrets, offering monetary incentive… I was so very close to abandoning all logic and reason, and committing murder just to escape to safety and sanity. No one but you was ever worth socializing with. The best people, like Kirigiri, were tolerable at best – and the worst of them just… pissed me off. People didn’t care about the curfew I proposed. The murders weren't going to stop. So when Monokuma offered that I could take someone with me… I leaped at the chance.”

Makoto stayed quiet as the gambler unloaded it all off her chest. He owed her this much.

“Of course, my plan had a wrench thrown into it by Kuwata. I thought that was curtains for me. The others were weary of me on their best days prior to my stunt; I was public enemy #1 after the trial. But you never gave up on me. You gave me a second chance, and you **stayed with me** , not following the others’ lead with how they treated me. You showed me… even if the person is despicable, they can be capable of change or simply have great potential, below the surface.” Celes opened her eyes and smiled wryly again. “While I won’t say that’s quite true about myself anymore – a screwup is a screwup – it made me reevaluate how I viewed others. Even if they treated me as scum… I couldn’t let them lead us to an early death. You wouldn’t have wanted that. It was hard. I’m used to putting in effort when there’s incentive to do so, and everyone really tried my patience at every turn…”

Celes released a wistful sigh before taking a step toward him.

“When you came back… That’s when it all became worth it, again. I’m sorry to say… But maybe I’m just a lost cause. I can try to change, but in the end, I struggle against my baser instincts of greed and selfishness. After that trial, I was alone again. We all were. I didn’t know what to expect next, didn’t have a plan for keeping the gang together… I probably would have succumbed to murder yet again, knowing me.” She gripped her arm and stared down at the floor, losing the resolve she had when starting this.

Makoto deserved someone better than her.

“I don’t think that at all!” The luckster smiled wryly at her bemused expression. “Celes, none of that stuff with that rigged trial counts! W-Well… I mean, the suspicion you all had and the unity that was shattered… It’s not your guys’ fault! Monokuma… Junko… That was all according to her dumb plan to pit you guys against each other. I have faith that even if I **had** died, you guys would have come back together again! Ikusaba was there, too, remember? In the end, Junko was gonna fail! She cheated her own game, and that was her undoing. So… Don’t be too hard on yourself. You did amazing – you all did! You deserved that second chance.”

… And that resolve was back again. Celes closed the gap between them and kissed him on the cheek, stepping back hurriedly after a few moments. They were both rather flustered from the intimate exchange.

“Well, I’m willing to try so long as you are.” Celes took a ragged breath… but then smirked at his slight unsteady stance. “You’re not going to faint on me now, are you? While I don’t know what transpired between you and Maizono, I can easily guess something similar happened.”

Makoto rubbed his cheek numbly, still feeling like he was dreaming.

“N-No, no… I-I’m getting… used to it… I think.” He coughed awkwardly. As long as she didn’t…

“Good. Because I love you, too.” She primly curtsied. “I won’t make you choose, of course. But my feelings shan’t subside, even if you pick Maizono~… That much I will guarantee you. I will be supportive of whoever you choose.”

“…” Damnit.

~*~

Shortly after that… exchange… Makoto and Celes rejoined everyone at the entrance hall, where everything had begun. The seven of them remained silent for some time, standing in front of the door… caught up in their own epilogue, and all the events that preceded the conclusion.

After a while, Celes placed her hands on her hips.

“Just standing here isn’t going to get us anywhere… It’s about time we get going…” She nodded to the Luckster. “Naegi, would you do the honors?”

“S-Sure…” Makoto stuttered, taking the switch from Mukuro and feeling its weight in his hands…

“Do you think it’s real?” Mondo couldn’t help but ask. “Is that really the key to this door?”

“As best as we can guess…” Fujisaki muttered. “Based on what she said, this should open it…”

“She said she would ensure we left…” Sayaka ran a hand through her hair calmly. “And then she left us this just before she died… Given that, it seems very likely that this would be the key we need to get out of here.”

“B-But still… what if it’s, like, a self-destruct button?” Mondo proposed. “Enoshima never said we’d leave this place **alive** …”

“That is possible, yes…” Celes conceded. But she also pointed out, “But we can’t just **not** push it… The air purifier is dead, and will never work again.”

That was true. Mukuro spoke up as some seemed to hesitate.

“It’s the escape switch. There is no deceit. Jin Kirigiri pressed that button to seal us within, when this all started. Junko could not have tampered with it.”

… Well, there was no arguing with that. After everything, none of them was going to doubt Mukuro.

Mondo scowled with determination.

“Even if it was a trap… We just gotta risk it. I have to know… how the gang’s doing on the outside. The gang Daiya and I created together…”

“My band… My friends…” Sayaka whispered quietly, hugging her arms in fright, Makoto wrapping his arm around her shoulders in comfort.

“We should also check on the loved ones of Asahina and the others…” Fujisaki chipped in. “They deserve to know what happened, if they don’t know already!”

“It would be nice… if the world we all knew and loved was waiting for us on the other side of this door…” Celes mused. “That Enoshima’s story was one big, fat lie…”

Makoto hummed in thought.

“But no matter what’s happened to it, it’s still ‘our world’… So, whatever is waiting for us out there… watch out, because here we come. Besides, well, compared to this academy, the world’s a pretty big place… and because of how big it is, there’s obviously always going to be despair somewhere… but there’s just as much hope, y’know?”

Sayaka loosened up in his arms, marginally.

“The search for hope—the endeavor to find hope… That, in itself, is true Hope… and as long as you have that, you can keep pressing forward, no matter how hard you fall…”

Togami scoffed noisily.

“I don’t need the likes of you to tell me that! The Togami Corporation shall be reborn from the ashes… No matter how depraved it is out there, I will erase Enoshima’s taint from the world **permanently**.”

Celes giggled disdainfully.

“Still so arrogant, even now… But, I shall support this endeavor. Enoshima’s death was not enough.”

Bangs fell over Mukuro’s eyes at those words. She couldn’t… argue with that… Junko’s death was not enough for her, either…

“Keep in mind…” Mukuro spoke up again. “There **are** people on the outside who haven’t given up on Hope yet… Now that we’re through with the trial, I can tell you that one such group is called the Future Foundation, which is made up of Hope’s Peak graduates and former staff… You won’t be alone in the fight…”

She felt so hollow, giving that pep speech… But for Naegi-kun, she said all that. Even if it held no “Hope” for her… it would certainly boost his morale up.

“Let’s just see what we can do out there…” Makoto nodded, smiling at the soldier. “I look forward to continuing to work with all of you.”

“I guess this is goodbye… goodbye to this academy… And Ishimaru, Asahina, Oogami, and Kirigiri…” Fujisaki said.

“Yamada, Kuwata, Fukawa, and Hagakure as well…” Celes remarked, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. “It was a pyrrhic victory… But we did it.”

Togami huffed, getting caught up in the camaraderie of the moment, too.

“If you are ever in need, come and talk to me. Whether or not I will be able to help you is another matter…”

“It had to happen sooner or later… Let’s send everyone off with a smile!” Sayaka said, smiling sadly. “I’ll… I’ll come up with some songs to pay homage to them!”

“Guys, if you ever need some muscle, just holler! I’ll come runnin’ over in a flash!” Mondo promised. “After everything… I can’t say I’ll miss this place.”

“I can’t say I will, either.” Mukuro muttered. “But I do kind of feel strange about leaving…”

In more ways than one…

“I’m not quite sure how to put it into words…” Makoto said finally. “… but I guess this is our graduation, huh? Well, then… Here goes!”

Finally, Makoto pressed the switch… with his own hands… with their own hands… they would walk through the door to the future where Hope and Despair were intertwined… They had Hope, so they would soar. They had **Hope** , so they would continue the fight, and right the wrongs of the past.

With little fanfare, there was a large blaring sound as the door’s mechanisms began to unlock and open. The turrets trained at the door went up into the ceiling, and the iron door finally opened…

They’d earned the freedom they yearned for since the beginning…

~*~

The footfalls of high heels echoed in the dingy hallways, getting closer and closer. Mukuro was sitting against the left wall of the cell, near the bars, when the approaching person came to a halt. Her bright red eyes dully looked up, and past the visitor’s shoulder.

“Figured you’d be by… sooner or later…” The soldier muttered, sounding bored.

Chisa Yukizome beamed and clasped her hands together angelically.

“Well~! When I heard Kyosuke threw one of our beloved survivors in a dark, lonely cell, I **had** to come check on you! You poor thing… Students should be treated with care, not like coldblooded murderers with no future!” Slowly, Yukizome cracked open her eyes. “… Right?”

Mukuro kept staring past Yukizome’s shoulder before looking back to the floor, undisturbed by the redhead’s expression that was an amalgamation of cruel glee and dark resentment.

“Can you get to the point?” Mukuro asked blandly. Chisa scowled in annoyance.

“You’re no fun…” The former teacher sighed as she dropped a clipboard, document, and pen at Mukuro’s feet. The soldier looked up again, past Yukizome’s shoulder.

“And what happens if I don’t sign?”

Chisa smiled ominously, hands clasped behind her back.

“You rot in here until Kyosuke chops your head off… Or you work for me~…”

Slowly, Mukuro picked the clipboard up.

“And Naegi-kun…?”

“I’ll leave him alone as long as you do **everything** I say~…” Chisa made a saccharine promise that was as shifty as the clipboard the document rested on.

Mukuro rolled her eyes.

“I wish you’d stop talking… ‘cause I’m not wasting my breath on you, Girl A.”

Yukizome frowned and furrowed her brow in confusion at the bizarre insult. She nearly jumped when she heard footsteps echo behind her. Whipping around frantically, she gasped at the shadow she hadn’t seen there.

A young man in a well-maintained suit. Long flowing hair that reached below his waist and was draped all over him. What’s more, his piercing red eyes were a match for Mukuro’s.

“K-Kamukura…!” Yukizome took a wary step back. “I-I didn’t know you were there!”

And she didn’t. Izuru Kamukura was a ghost who flitted about the apocalyptic world as he pleased. Infiltrating Future Foundation, even this far in, was a breeze for him.

Yukizome then relaxed marginally, clapping her hands together merrily.

“Isn’t this a nice little reunion~? The three of us in one room… Can **I** perform the lobotomy, this time?”

Kamukura paid the redhead no mind.

“How.” The single word sharply left his lips, and reverberated on the walls of the cell.

Mukuro lifted her head to meet his emotionless, steely gaze and quirked an eyebrow.

“You’re gonna have to be a little more specific there, champ… In case you forgot, I’m not Junko. I can’t read your goddamn mind.”

Kamukura spoke clinically, detached.

“Mukuro Ikusaba… The Ultimate Soldier. Your loyalty to Junko Enoshima was second to none. Your swift death was all but guaranteed through your brainless naiveté. Yet here you breathe while your sister rots underground…” The man’s eyes hardened. “ **How**.”

Recognition washed over Mukuro as her face dulled again and she averted her gaze in boredom.

“Oh yeah… You’re the guy who forecasted my death. Guess you weren’t so crazy about Junko after all.”

Kamukura clenched his fist tighter in impatience.

“Your Despair paled in comparison to Enoshima’s… You were lost, devoured in her endless, ravenous shadow. You lurked there in the background as Enoshima’s disposable tool… Your existence was entirely inconsequential and meaningless. **You’re still here**.”

Mukuro shrugged nonchalantly, leaning her head back against the wall and gazed up at the ceiling.

“I dunno. I guess I… found that ‘Hope’ junk or whatever… Doesn’t that solve your head scratcher?” The jail cell’s bars jangled as Kamukura’s hand slammed into them as a show of force. If he wanted, Kamukura could tear them apart like tissue paper. Mukuro smirked wryly and lazily swiveled her head to Frankenstein’s monster again. “I really dunno what to tell ya, Chief. I followed Junko like a dog, believing with all my heart she’d love me if I just stayed with her… Then I actually **receive** love from someone else, and I realize… Junko’s never gonna love me like that. **Then** I find out it’s worse than that – Junko wanted to erase my entire existence! I find out Despair’s not all it’s cracked up to be… but now I wonder the same about Hope, y’know? I mean, it works great with Naegi-kun… But my life’s been such an endless abyss of Despair that I can’t even see my future… I broke the world, and I’m not even that sorry about it! I’m only sorry Naegi-kun’s gotta live in such a shitty, messed up place… And if I somehow **lose** his love, or Naegi-kun himself, God forbid, then Hope is fragile like crap. I’m still debating if I want that… Hell, I still don’t know **what I want** , period.”

Kamukura stared at Mukuro for a long time after that rambling speech. Slowly, his eyes roamed to his clenched fist, where Chiaki’s Gala Omega hairpin was nestled. His frown deepened.

“Now I see… Your existence is neither Despair nor Hope. It never was. These two forces shaped you, **warped** you – you were born in Despair, yet exposed to Hope. Craved Hope but was given Despair.” Kamukura turned his back to the cell. “… You may finally give me the answer. I was distracted by your useless sister, bought into her honeyed lies and venomous promises. To think the answer had been right under my nose the entire time… Mukuro Ikusaba… We will meet again in the very near future.”

Mukuro snorted spitefully.

“I never liked you from the get-go. What makes you think the Foundation is even going to keep me around long enough for another ‘meeting’?”

“We **will** meet again.” Kamukura sharply looked over his shoulder, his tone was steel and brooked no room for argument. “Your feelings on the matter are irrelevant. Hope and Despair titanically clash within you, struggling for supremacy. I **must** know which is the true Wild card. Your sister robbed me of the answer by tainting her frivolous game… Now it falls to you.”

Mukuro rolled her eyes, glancing up to the ceiling again.

“I betcha say that to all the girls… Go screw yourself.”

Kamukura’s last words piqued her interest.

“You will have the chance to destroy your sister’s legacy…” The mysterious man departed on an ambiguous note. Yukizome called after him, wanting to know what he was talking about.

Mukuro just stared after him blankly.

“Junko’s legacy, huh…?” Mukuro gave a Cheshire grin. “It’s a date, big guy~! I’ll be waitinggg~!” And she would be.

Junko’s death had not been enough to satisfy her. Getting to destroy her legacy… would be like trying to destroy **Junko’s** existence. Quite the turnabout. Ironic how she and Kamukura outlived Junko. She used them to execute her plans, and now they’d be undoing it all. Wiping her stain from the earth.

Mukuro’s grin grew crooked, spooking even Yukizome.

Oh yes… There was l **ots** more of Junko to kill. And here Mukuro had thought she’d have to search long and hard for a new mission. Her new purpose was still in place, of course; she’d protect Naegi-kun to her dying breath. But if she was going to do that, she would have to annihilate the largest threats to him… Junko’s **legacy** …

How silly she’d been, thinking Junko’s death was the end of the mission…

“Now who’s the ‘Headmaster’? Upupu~…”

She couldn’t wait, she couldn’t wait~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Isn't that nice~ Muku's not a lost lamby anymore. New missionnnnn~ :D
> 
> "... I have no recourse but to admit it. I've obtained a one-way ticket to Hell... Fine! Then you must trample me underfoot and advance! Victory can only be built upon a foundation of corpses! You cannot find peace without sacrifice anywhere! Now, trample this life! Trample it as though it were mere trash on the side of the road! Pull the curtain strings of this worthless performance with your own two hands!" 
> 
> Suddenly, Tanaka's ramblings aren't so crazy~ I get it, now~ The harem community will trample me for leaving it open-ended... BUT YOU WILL ALL BE HAPPY BECAUSE NAEZONO/NAEKUSABA/NAECELES LIVE! NO unrequited love to be seen~ The girls will be happy with their Lucky Charms, and Naegi will adapt~ :D
> 
> .... As Nicob once said. "Gimme my bonus content, bitch." And I will. Just gotta write it out. XD


	30. Bonus: Fragments of Hope

“C’mon, dude! Wake up!”

The luckster groggily sat up in his bed and glanced at his alarm clock. His gaze then panned to the door to his room, where the baseball player was poking his head in.

Leave it to the redhead not to knock like a normal person…

“Kuwata…? What’s the rush? Classes aren’t for another hour…” Makoto rubbed his eye tiredly. The luckster was normally a morning person, but last night had been exhausting. He was kind of hoping to sleep in a little more today…

Kuwata made a face at the brunet.

“Don’t tell me you forgot, dude! It’s your fault Coach Nekomaru looked my way at all! If I’m doomed to early morning ‘training’, I’m dragging you to Hell with me!”

Makoto deadpanned at the baseball player’s attitude. All they did… was toss the baseball around a few times last week. Kuwata had **wanted** to do it! How was he supposed to know Akane-senpai and Nekomaru-senpai were gonna be running 500 laps around the whole school?! They’d avoided the track and field areas **for** that very purpose!

“Fine, fine… Just give me a sec to get dressed.” The luckster grumbled, throwing off his bedcovers exasperatedly. Leon still kept his head poked in the room. “What? I’m coming!”

“Every time I take my eyes off you, you get dragged into the weirdest crap! I ain’t risking one-on-one with Coach. When **you’re** there, he actually holds back a little!” A little. Like bench-pressing one truck instead of two, maybe.

Makoto shot the redhead a withering glare. It’s not like he **planned** for his luck to happen… Though he might have been hoping and praying for it when Coach was involved.

Hey – this was the guy that drove you to exhaustion as a warmup, and then gave you the most incredible massage to give you another burst of energy for another painful workout… Having endured a few sessions with the man by now, Makoto knew… today was going to hurt.

… And knowing those massages… he was going to enjoy it.

~*~

“You look like crap.”

The luckster deadpanned at the blonde as a pencil was poked into his cheek. At least it was the end with the eraser, this time.

“Thanks, Enoshima… That makes me feel so much better.” Makoto was too exhausted to filter his words, so the sarcasm flowed.

Junko, of course, took full advantage of the moment of weakness.

“Wow, really?” There went that Cheshire grin of hers. “No one’s said something so nice about such a crude insult before~… You sure you’re not masochist like neechan?”

Makoto’s glare became withering.

“I’m not masochist… and stop picking on Ikusaba!” The luckster grunted out tiredly. His gaze dulled more as the fashionista flipped the pencil around and poked his cheek with the sharpened end. It was nice while it lasted. He growled a little in frustration. “Can you stop?!”

Casually, Junko slipped a crown on her head and placed her hands on her hips imperiously.

“I don’t know, **can** I?”

… And went right back to poking his cheek with the pencil. Damnit. If his arms weren’t feeling boneless, and like they weighed a ton…

“Kuwataaa…” Makoto groaned, side-glaring at the baseball star, who had asked Sakura to deposit him farther away from where Enoshima was sitting.

Lucky bastard.

“Don’t look at me, dude! I ain’t touchin’ that!” … Again. In broad daylight.

The luckster had seen the pinup. Kuwata denied its existence entirely, but the luckster **knew** it was in that damn locker. Makoto was almost petty enough to tell the fashionista in question, let Leon deal with the fallout.

… Why did he hafta be such a nice guy?

“Your fault I can’t move. You help deal with her!” Makoto grunted.

Leon rolled his eyes.

“All it takes is a few words to Coach~…” The baseball star glowered back with as much intensity, head also resting down on his desk in exhaustion.

The luckster narrowed his eyes. Yeah, sure. Kuwata wasn’t gonna lift a finger? They’d suffer it together, then. He was nice. Merciful. But he wasn’t a doormat! Contrary to what Togami claimed.

… Coach was a good influence on Kuwata, okay?! It was for Kuwata’s own good! He wasn’t vindictive. … Much.

“Real Mario Bros, you two.” Junko muttered, scribbling a mustache on Makoto’s face. The luckster twitched. So the face graffiti had begun…

“Enoshima. That’s enough.” Sakura told the blonde sternly, arms crossed over her chest from where she sat nearby. Junko made an exaggerated dismissive notion before turning back around to face the front as requested.

… Makoto knew she’d be back, though. With neon Sharpie.

“Thanks, Oogami.” The luckster breathed a ragged sigh and smiled tiredly all the same. He knew she’d stop it from getting out of hand. The Ultimate Fighter returned his smile kindly.

“Nidai-senpai’s workouts are not for the faint of heart. You’re to be commended for holding out for as long as you have, Naegi-kun. Kuwata at least has that latent physical potential; yours is more raw and untapped. But keep at it like this, and that may very well change.”

Makoto chuckled weakly and buried his face in his desk. He knew that. All too well. But he couldn’t resist when Nidai-senpai looked so **happy** coaching them… Makoto knew this was gonna lead to an early grave with the way his meager body was being pushed, but… Nidai-senpai was **happy** …

So very, very happy…

Come to think of it, Makoto hadn’t spent enough time around the Ultimate Coach to see a time when he was ever **unhappy** … Still, Makoto’s heart didn’t want to risk disappointing the man. His body wanted to mutiny, but those **massages** …

… And… And… Maybe Sayaka would like to see some meat on these bones?

“D-D-Don’t give him wild delusions!” Almost as if reading his mind, Fukawa rejected the fighter’s assessment. “N-Naegi’s character isn’t the macho type. T-Too much of a pushover!”

Asahina tilted her head curiously.

“Isn’t that what training’s about? Improving on your strengths and weaknesses?”

Fukawa raised her hands dramatically, hissing.

“Sh-Sh-Shut up, idiot swimmer! I-I know what I’m talking about! F-First it’s just getting a ‘little’ muscle… th-then that isn’t enough, and he turns to steroids. A-And then p-pretty soon, he’s a playboy that b-bullies the nerds and has a harem of girls… F-Followed by alcohol and s-sex, n-no doubt… H-H-Happens a-all the time with you meatheads and athletes! I-It’s like you guys get drunk off of testosterone a-and all that muscle and p-power!”

Asahina scowled, offended by the accusations.

“Hey, we’re not all like that! I don’t even know any athlete like that at Hope’s Peak!”

The Ultimate Writer broke out in a lecherous grin at the predictable defense.

“S-Suuure you don’t… J-Just like I’m suuure you haven’t had boys all o-over th-th-those **melons** …” The brunette hugged herself and panted as lewd thoughts came into focus. “I-I’ll b-bet you get behind the b-bleachers all the t-time, and…! And…!”

“Fukawa, it seems we will have to have another talk…” Sakura stood up menacingly, and that shut the writer’s overactive imagination right up.

“N-N-N-N-No talking n-necessary!” Fukawa shrank in her seat, whimpering.

Yamada stroked his chin thoughtfully.

“Miss Touko Fukawa’s wild imagination aside, she makes a good point about Mister Makoto Naegi! It’s best not to tempt fate and ruin his ‘nice guy’ trope!”

Junko nodded sagely.

“Once a herbivore man, always a herbivore man~…” Well, at this point, Makoto’s self-esteem was shot again, so it’s not like the ‘herbivore’ moniker bothered him too much in this instance… Though he really didn’t like being called that…

Celes cupped her hands under her chin, beaming pleasantly.

“’Herbivore’ he may be, but Naegi-kun is stronger in ways that athletes could only ever dream of achieving… Physical strength is not the be-all, end-all~…”

Ishimaru nodded firmly in agreement – feeling it was one of those rare times he and the gambler could see eye-to-eye.

“Willpower, compassion, conviction, and heart are important, too! These qualities are often overlooked in favor of superficial ones!”

“Very true…” Sakura rumbled, sitting back down and staring at the luckster thoughtfully.

… And just like that, self-esteem restored. While his class was a handful, they did know how to make him feel welcome and a part of the group…

~*~

“Naegi-chiiiii…!”

Makoto chuckled weakly as the fortuneteller came running over to him and Mukuro. The soldier took a defensive stance, forming a wall between him and Hagakure. Not that the luckster could blame Mukuro for her caution… not after what happened last week…

“H-Hey, Hagakure… What’s up?” Makoto asked, poking his head over Mukuro’s shoulder.

If it was any consolation, Hagakure didn’t seem to take the distrust personally. He placed a hand over his chest casually.

“I just wanted to thank you for the other day, bro! Those yakuza shmucks aren’t after my hide anymore after Ikusaba-chi roughed ‘em up! That Ultimate Yakuza guy even came to me personally and said all debts were off!” He crossed his arms and laughed smugly. “I shoulda thought of approaching you before! I was quaking in my boots for months after finding out the Ultimate Yakuza attended Hope’s Peak… You really came through for me, bro, I owe ya big time!”

Makoto smiled wryly as he could feel Mukuro’s withering glare aimed at Hiro, even standing behind the girl in question. Hagakure had a knack for being unrepentant… Personally, he was just glad that mess was all behind them.

“N-No problem…” Makoto rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. Mukuro wasn’t budging from her rigid position. “Was there something else you wanted?”

As friendly and open as the luckster was, the recent incident had taught him to be wary of Hagakure. ‘Favors’ could mean some pretty shady things… or, they could be as harmless as they came. There was no way of knowing until one actually tried helping the fortuneteller with his… problems.

“Nah, no favors today!” Hagakure waved off his suspicion, and Makoto felt a wave of relief washed over him. “Just wanted to thank ya! And, uh… Ikusaba-chi, too! I figure this whole mess behind us, that puts us about even again, Naegi-chi! Just gotta clear up that little payment for that trial from a while back, and we’re golden!”

Makoto deflated, having an inkling of the meaning behind that last comment.

“Y-You still want payment for that, huh…” The luckster’s eyes glazed over at the memory of that ‘trial fortune’. “…”

Hagakure chuckled humorously.

“’Course, Naegi-chi! I don’t make the rules, y’know? I read your future, so you gotta pay up!” He waved off the luckster’s worry casually. “But it’s not like I wanna get paid today or anything, right? Like I said, we’re about even with this recent mess! So, uh… You owed, like, 105,000 yen? Around there? I’ll shave off… 25,000 to sweeten the deal! So you only owe me 80,000 yen now! Easy, right?!”

Makoto just stared off into space, mortified. Hagakure still wanted payment. **He still wanted payment**.

Mukuro narrowed her eyes dangerously at the fortuneteller.

“All things considered, Naegi-kun should owe you nothing after what you tried to pull. Right…?” Her tone brooked no argument.

Hagakure chuckled obliviously, however.

“Aww, sorry, Ikusaba-chi! This and that are two totally different things! I run a respectable business!” Having spoken his piece, Hagakure half-turned and gave the luckster a friendly wave before taking off. “Don’t worry, Naegi-chi! We’ll clear up that old debt! Just save up what ya can~!”

… And he bounced off happily like he hadn’t left a boy there, traumatized.

“Naegi-kun? Are you okay?” Mukuro tilted her head as she turned to face him, feeling his discomfort without even looking.

Makoto’s eyes were still glazed over.

“He… He still wants me to pay…” He mumbled, mortified.

“Pay for what?” Mukuro pressed, brow furrowing in concern.

“… A fortune.” Makoto replied faintly, still not completely ‘there’.

Mukuro’s mouth thinned into a line, knowing she probably wasn’t going to like the answer, but also knowing she was going to need more to work with.

“What kind of fortune was it?”

Makoto didn’t reply for the longest time, but when he did, Mukuro felt chills go down her spine at the contents.

“H-He… He said the mother of my children, and the mother of his children, were going to be the same woman.” Makoto muttered, still not wanting to believe it, himself. “I know I shouldn’t be bothered with Hagakure’s low prediction accuracy… But I can’t help thinking somehow, some way, he might be right. And that kinda terrifies me.”

Mukuro wrinkled her nose at Makoto’s confession of Hiro’s fortune. It appeared she would be needing to have more words with Hagakure, after all… But first.

“It’s okay, Naegi-kun! There’s no way you two will end up with the same woman.” Mukuro patted the luckster’s head consolingly. Makoto nodded faintly.

“I-I’d like that to be true, too. I just can’t help thinking… it **might** …” He trailed off helplessly.

Mukuro’s eyes narrowed in frustration. It appeared that talk wouldn’t be able to be delayed if Naegi-kun was this disturbed… She guided the deeply troubled luckster over to a nearby bench.

“Naegi-kun, you just sit here for a bit, okay? I’ll be back.”

Makoto just nodded and sat down on reflex. Too wrapped up in his anxiety over his possible future to question Mukuro running off like a woman on a mission. And when she came back fifteen minutes later, he still didn’t question it when she handed him 105,000 yen to “compensate him for the trouble.”

… He did get a little curious in fifth period, when Hagakure jumped at his simple greeting. But Hagakure tended to jump at a lot of different, odd things… It wouldn’t be until much, much later when Makoto finally connected the dots about what had happened.

That’s when he’d find out trying to return that money was an impossible task. Hagakure absolutely refused it, accusing Naegi of trying to curse him… Kinda weird, since it was his money in the first place…

Sometimes, being the nice guy landed Makoto in a world of trouble. Sometimes, Lady Luck did favor him.

And sometimes, “Lady Luck” took the guise of his classmate Mukuro, and reaped vengeance on his behalf…

~*~

Mondo scowled as he picked up the fliers off the ground. He could be a real dumbass, sometimes. Barreling into the class rep ‘cause he was late for meeting up with Bro and not watching where he was going, racing up those stairs? Sounded about right for an idiot like him.

… But a man cleans up his own messes. Naegi tried bein’ understanding and sympathetic, but Oowada wasn’t having any of that. That was a damn ton of fliers the luckster had been carrying; Oowada was honestly impressed he had tried lugging all those down the stairs with those skinny arms… Then again, such feats were just one reason Naegi was elected as the class rep.

“Bro! So this is where you were dawdling?!”

Mondo frowned and straightened up just enough to see Taka pointing and glaring at him in determination, not too far away.

“My bad, Broski… A man owns his shit, y’know? I ran into Naegi, so I gotta clean up the mess! There’s no other way.” … Though he could’ve bothered to think ahead and ask Naegi where he was taking these. Crap.

Ishimaru reeled back a little as he took in many fliers still scattered on the ground. Oowada had stacked dozens of them, but there was still so many to go…

“You should’ve called me, Brozum!” The prefect insisted, moving to assist with the monumental cleanup. Wait a minute… these looked like…

“A man owns his shit!” Mondo raised a twitching hand furiously. “’Sides, I’ve **got** this! You should just go chill out with a frosty one ‘til I get done!”

“No can do!” Ishimaru denied with a vigorous shake of the head. “Bros do not abandon bros! And I selfishly asked Naegi-kun to help put these up around campus so I could have our scheduled hanging out time, so this falls on me, as well!”

Mondo went rigid at this information.

“You… asked Naegi to throw all these up?!” The biker growled lowly. There had to be at least two or three hundred of these damn things! “Was I not man enough for the job?!”

“That’s not it at all, and you know it!” Ishimaru fired back. “Naegi was just the one that was able to stay behind today! The others had prior engagements!”

Mondo still wasn’t satisfied with that answer.

“We put way too much on his shoulders, man…” He growled again, picking up the fliers with a little more heat. “He’s the rep, not our glorified slave!”

“I know, I know!” Ishimaru lamented, picking up fliers at the same feverish rate. “Still… I’m glad you made time to help fix my screwup, Bro! Between the two of us, we’ll be done in half the time Naegi-kun would have taken!”

Mondo scowled at that estimation.

“I’d rather be helpin’ you pick out your ride like we planned… You finally got your license and all!” Ishimaru had been putting that off, too, for all the other duties he had as the Ultimate Prefect…

“There will be plenty of time, another day!” Ishimaru boasted proudly, making the biker groan. He knew how to get his Bro pumped, however… “That said! You are much too slow, Browada! At this rate, I’ll be out there posting the fliers and be done way before you!”

Mondo went rigid at the clear challenge.

“… The fuck you just say, Broski?!”

“ **Language** , Brozum!” Ishimaru reprimanded him.

“I don’t care about that!” Mondo roared challengingly. “You want a race? I’ll give you one you won’t soon forget…!”

By the time the two of them were done, it looked more like a hurricane had blown through campus with the fliers all hastily thrown up on the bulletin boards, poles, vending machines, and anywhere else students would pass by… But that was one way to liven up a normally menial, listless task…

Oh, Headmaster Kirigiri would make them tidy up later, that was for certain. But for now… they had other hot-blooded, manly competitions to get to… Such was the unique relationship between Ultimate Prefect and Ultimate Biker.

~*~

“They’re really going at it, huh?” Makoto asked with a wry smile as he watched the two athletes swim at speeds he could only dream of. And not a drop of water sprinkled outside the pool…

Of course, it helped that Hope’s Peak’s outdoor pool was big enough to host the Olympics. But still, the two girls were swimming laps along the edges…

Sakura grinned proudly, arms crossed as she, too, watched the display.

“Owari-senpai is truly a force to be reckoned with. However, I have never known Hina to lose within her element. I would have declared Owari-senpai’s challenge to be the height of hubris, but she is providing a sporting challenge. Such commendable spirit…”

“GAHAHAHA!” Nekomaru Nidai belted out his traditional, hearty laugh, hands on his hips proudly. “Owari’s a knucklehead, but she’s got moxie! I can see where you’re coming from – Asahina’s definitely got this race in the bag. **However**! Owari is gonna be right behind her at the finish line. That’s just like her, forcing a photo finish…”

Sakura nodded indulgently.

“She is by far one of the finest champions you’ve groomed, senpai… You have every right to be proud of her.”

Nidai picked at his ear with his pinky, scowling.

“HAH! As if you don’t have a splendid pupil of your own in Asahina…”

Sakura smiled ruefully and shook her head.

“Please. Asahina is always teaching me something new… Her growth was inevitable, and I attribute it all to her dedication.”

Makoto frowned thoughtfully, slightly turning towards the Ultimate Fighter.

“You’re an inspiration to her, Oogami! Her best friend. She learns just as much from you as you do from her!”

Nidai nodded proudly at the luckster’s attitude.

“He’s right, Oogami… Athletes and coaches run hand-in-hand! It’s not a vacuum where growth just ‘happens.’ Don’t you dare sell yourself short…!”

Sakura closed her eyes and grinned calmly.

“You all are too kind… But thank you. Your words… mean more than you could ever know.”

Makoto scratched his cheek sheepishly.

“If anyone’s out of place here, it’s me… I don’t even know why Hina asked me to referee when you guys could call it better than I ever could.”

Sakura grinned, playfully nudging the luckster’s shoulder with her fist.

“Now who’s being modest? Hina needed someone who could clearly be impartial. Owari-senpai, too. We’re too invested to be ‘completely’ impartial…”

Nidai grinned as well and ruffled the luckster’s head.

“And don’t forget! Oogami and I are up next! You just keep your eye on that finish line – blink, and you’ll miss it! We’re all counting on ya.”

Makoto chuckled sheepishly and reluctantly accepted the steep, yet earnest, wishes being thrust on him. He’d support them all. It felt a tad overwhelming, watching the waves of water kicked up from simply swimming laps… and he’d feel just as awed, watching the clouds of dust that Oogami and Nidai were capable of generating… Though, admittedly, watching was preferable to actually having to join the race with them.

The luckster still had nightmares about Oogami barreling down on him like a bullet train… That was a day he’d rather not relive.

~*~

Togami leered at the Goth in front of him. The Goth who so casually sipped at her tea in that cushy, second-rate excuse of an expensive chair… and wasn’t batting an eye at him.

“Ludenberg. Let’s be reasonable about this. Name your price.”

Celes beamed pleasantly and clinked her cup down on the saucer plate.

“Hmhm… The only reason you’re so desperate is because of your ‘partner’ in the group assignments. I think I should enjoy seeing you grovel. Yes, very much so…”

The heir narrowed his eyes dangerously.

“A Togami does not **grovel** … That is a spectacle of the commoners!” The blond puffed his chest about a bit, feeling affronted. “You should feel **honored** that the illustrious Byakuya Togami is basically offering you a blank check with this. No price is too high.”

Celes cupped a hand over her mouth in ‘shock’.

“My, my, a blank check…? I could have you purchase my castle for me and spend my hard-earned wealth on other matters that demand my attention… perhaps pay my knights more handsomely…”

Togami gritted his teeth in aggravation.

“You’re still on about that delusion? Very well… I will cut the check…”

Celes giggled, cupping her hands under her chin and leaning her elbows on the table.

“Naturally, it sounds tempting… but I really must decline. I would not trade my partner for all the wealth in the world, you see. Our pairing was a fortuitous twist of fate, and he is not suited for grunt work. I assure you, you are not the first to ask for a partner swap… And I will assume that you shall not be the last.”

“As my **assistant** , he would have all the perks and benefits of a Togami Corporation employee!” The heir snapped, glaring daggers and baring his teeth in frustration. “Now be rational… and allow me to acquire your **partner’s** services.”

Celes leaned back in contentment as Yamada refilled her drink.

“Look how the beggar barters and pleads, Hifumi… Have you ever seen something so pedestrian~?”

Yamada grinned coyly and tapped his temple mischievously as he straightened up once the cup was full once more.

“Beggar to beggar cried indeed, Miss Celestia Ludenberg~…” The otaku agreed completely.

Togami curled his fist at his side and snarled.

“No one asked for **your** input, swine! Ludenberg, I am enlisting Naegi’s aid whether you ‘approve’ or not…! I only approached you as a **courtesy** … Though you clearly don’t deserve that!”

Celes snorted in amusement, idly picking her cup up again.

“From groveling to hostile takeover, the Togami negotiation techniques are to be feared indeed… Well, I encourage you to give your best shot. Maizono already did her worst, I have nothing to fear from the likes of you.”

Togami stiffened and gritted his teeth.

“… He turned down **Maizono** as a partner?!”

“He was quite remorseful, I assure you.” Celes idly confessed. “But Naegi-kun’s loyalty is second-to-none. Sensei assigned him to me, and he wasn’t about to ‘abandon’ his duty, not even for his beloved. The least **I** can do is offer the same loyalty~… Hmhm. I do so look forward to our preparation and strategy meetings this weekend. I pity your partner, since **your** weekend will be much less… savory.”

Togami’s glare darkened.

“This isn’t over… Mark my words, you will **pay** …” The heir stalked off moodily.

After he had left, Yamada turned toward the gambler slightly.

“… Did Mister Makoto Naegi really turn down the chance to work with Miss Sayaka Maizono? I thought Mister Makoto Naegi had to leave early for the day?”

“He did.” Celes plainly revealed, sipping her tea quietly. “… But Togami didn’t need to know that. And anyway, it wasn’t a total lie. Naegi-kun did promise he wouldn’t switch partners… He’s sweet like that.”

Yamada grinned coyly as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“Two people with unparalleled luck… It’s a wonder Miss Sayaka Maizono ended up in a relationship with Mister Makoto Naegi first! You would think your luck would have resonated with Mister Makoto Naegi’s for that particular honor…”

Celes rolled her eyes.

“Maizono swooped in like a vulture, picking all that kindness and caring off his bones… She’s quite territorial. Unfortunately for her, I am ready and waiting for her to slip up. Naegi-kun may yet be mine if stardom lasts longer than she believed~…”

“You and Miss Mukuro Ikusaba, you mean~…” Yamada teased mercilessly. “I’ve seen the way she ogles Mister Makoto Naegi~! Such a longing, passionate gaze…”

“Hifumi.” The gambler growled darkly, head bowed.

“Y-Yes, Miss Celestia Ludenberg…?” The otaku stammered, quivering in fright at the dark aura surrounding her.

“Shut your trap and bring more tea.” Her head snapped up in an intimidating snarl as she raised a finger. “ **Chop** - **chop** , **Porky**!!!”

“IIIEEE! Y-YESSSSS, MISS CELESTIA LUDENBERG! PORKY WILL DELIVER!”

It’d been a good long while since she’d had to snap like that at the Ultimate Fanfic Creator… Hifumi took to his training well and became a valued servant – and an even better friend. Celes could concede Hifumi would likely be joining her and Naegi-kun at the castle in Europe after they graduated…

… But sometimes Porky still found ways to cross the line that shouldn’t be crossed…

~*~

“Hey, Champ~…” Junko greeted brightly, poking her head into the computer lab. “Got anything good to show me yet?”

Chihiro waved at the fashionista from where he was sitting.

“Oh, hey, Enoshima! Yeah, you can come check her out! I’m just going to be fine-tuning her this week before I hand her off to you. I-Is that okay?”

Junko grinned ear-to-ear. Ahead of schedule… that was **good**.

“Sure, pal~… C’mon, show me, show me~!” The fashionista frolicked over to the Ultimate Programmer and leaned over his shoulder. On the screen in front of them was…

“Heeey, me~!” The AI Junko on screen gave a Cheshire grin and flashed the peace sign.

Junko felt a very pleasurable shudder travel through her entire body at seeing the work-in-progress. **Much** , much better than she was hoping for, poking her head in here today… Chihiro was working off her public persona when developing the AI, and it wouldn’t **know** about the plan until she brought it into the loop once it was all hers…

_‘Such a good little worker bee~…’_ Junko purred within her mind and patted Chihiro’s head affectionately.

It wouldn’t be long… until her digital backup was ready. Chihiro, the Ultimate Programmer, would put the finishing touches on it this week in regards to the computer program itself… And then Junko Enoshima, the Ultimate Despair, would put **her** finishing touches on it, grafting her **real** personality and ambitions onto it, and helping Despair to transcend the mortal human coil…

Oh yes… The time to kick this planet right in the teeth was nigh.

~*~

Spring and summer came and went. Fall blew right past them. Soon, winter had arrived… And like all the seasons before it, winter was a special time filled with so many fond memories for Class 78…

“I still can’t believe you and Oogami made yours so big, Hina!” Sayaka giggled as she, Makoto, and Aoi sat on the sidelines, watching their friends demolish each other in an intense snowball fight.

… Well, most of them, anyway. Byakuya, Touko, Celes, and Kyoko were sitting out the ‘war’, too. They all were wise and knew better than to get involved when three of the participants were the Ultimate Baseball Star, Ultimate Soldier, and Ultimate Fighter.

Asahina smiled fondly as she gazed upon the magnificent snowman that dwarfed even Togami…

“I helped, but Sakura did all the heavylifting!” The swimmer rubbed the back of her head bashfully. “You didn’t do too bad yourself, Naegi! Rolling snowballs to that size isn’t easy.”

It really was pointless to compare his, Sayaka, and Byakuya’s snowman to Sakura and Aoi’s. There was no contest. The heir had been insistent on finding out what all the hype was about, constructing something as ‘simple’ and ‘pedestrian’ as snowmen… Though of course, he didn’t lift a finger to help, merely ‘directed’. At least Sayaka had been there.

… And at least Byakuya hadn’t thrown a tantrum when they inevitably lost to Sakura and Aoi. Makoto hadn’t looked forward to getting chewed out for something completely out of his hands… But Byakuya defied expectations, and praised their hard work. … Even if Byakuya lumped himself in with that praise.

Baby steps.

“Nah, wasn’t that hard at all!” Makoto confessed, running a hand through his hair casually. “Komaru and I build ‘em every year, and we always try making them bigger and grander… Since we’re apart this year, I’m supposed to send pics of what I got, and she’ll send hers.”

Sayaka’s eyes sparkled at the mention of the little sister, and she sighed dreamily.

“Komaru-chan’s adorable as ever~… I still want to play Santa.”

Makoto sweatdropped, scratching his cheek nervously.

“P-Please don’t… Not in-person, at least. She can handle the video chats now… mostly…” If she prepared herself in advance. Meeting Sayaka in-person would give Komaru a certified heart attack. Makoto would know, since she passed out on the first video chat the idol had playfully stuck her nose into.

Seeing your idol up on stage during concert was one thing. Seeing that idol across a video screen was pretty much the same. Seeing and talking to them up close, one-on-one, without a filter… was another monster of an experience altogether.

“Then I’ll wake her up first thing, Christmas Day!” Sayaka beamed, playfully swaying her hips. Her eyes lost none of that sparkle and merriment. Makoto knew she was up to something… probably involving him, too…

… Poor Komaru.

“So do you and Komaru-chan compete to see who makes the bigger snowman every year?” Asahina asked curiously, tilting her head at the luckster.

Makoto shook his head with a wry smile.

“Only sometimes.” Mostly when she thought he needed more of a backbone, or when he himself wanted to assert his older brother superiority… Their sibling dynamic was totally average and normal, y’know? “I definitely plan on showing off your and Oogami’s, though! She’s been wondering just how much bigger we could possibly get with these things… This’ll definitely inspire her!”

Asahina grinned fondly, pumping a fist.

“Sounds like me and Yuta to a T!” The swimmer laughed. “Glad I could help!”

All fun and games come to an end, however… Togami marched over to the three of them moodily, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

“Naegi. Come. A grave offense has just been committed, and it falls to me to dish out justice. … By your hands, of course.” He crossed his arms stubbornly. “Well, what are you waiting for? Show them the might of the Togami name, Naegi!”

The three of them stared at Togami for several long moments, blinking owlishly. It was eventually Makoto who broke the silence.

“… You want to get in on the snowball fight?” Makoto asked, befuddled. Then he saw a drop of water trail down Togami’s nose and drip to the ground, indicating the truth of the case to the luckster. “Ohhh…”

“ **Show them** , Naegi!” Byakuya repeated a little more forcefully, pointing with authority and might.

Makoto chuckled sheepishly, looking at the flurry of snowballs flying back and forth, like a mini blizzard… A blizzard he knew was very real, and probably very painful if the balls were flying over 60mph like he suspected they were. And Togami wasn’t going to allow him to chicken out on this one…

… This was gonna hurt.

~*~

Makoto wished he could say the act of getting kidnapped was still a novelty, a totally new experience that he would, hopefully, never have to get used to.

… But this was Hope’s Peak. And more importantly, it was his birthday. That meant all bets were off when it came to him and Murphy’s Law… And, well. His classmates, his senpai, and even the teachers and faculty of Hope’s Peak were the most eccentric people he’d ever met… Being kidnapped had lost its fresh luster a long time ago…

“S-Senpai…?” Makoto squeaked as the pair of yakuza in trench coats set him down at a place of honor at an elongated table in an elegant dining room.

Fuyuhiko smirked, sitting at the opposite end and waving casually like this was an everyday occurrence. … Which, to be fair, probably was for the Ultimate Yakuza.

“Yo, Naegi! Heard it was your big day. I just had to pay my respects.” The future head of the mafia explained without really explaining anything at all for the luckster.

Makoto ran a hand through his hair nervously.

“U-Um… th-thanks?” The luckster really wasn’t sure what to say to that. Of course he was happy to get to know new people, but… “I was with my friends, though… They’ll be looking for me.”

He really didn’t want to cause Headmaster Kirigiri any more headaches over his class going overboard for him. If they realized he was kidnapped, that would whip them into a frenzy like no other, and they’d turn the whole of Tokyo upside down to search for him…

Poor Headmaster…

“Aw, they’ll be fine!” Fuyuhiko waved off the concern uncaringly. “You’ll be back with ‘em by tomorrow. Cake?”

Makoto opened his mouth to politely decline, but then he stared at the impressive cake at the center of the table. And more importantly…

“I-Is that chocolate…?” Makoto swallowed thickly as he could smell it from here. His favorite kind, too…

Fuyuhiko smirked.

“Heard ya had a sweet tooth… But man, could ya have picked something a little more interesting for your favorite? The more I read up on you, the more average you get…”

Makoto shrugged helplessly. What could he say? He liked what he liked. Makoto then blinked owlishly as he registered that last comment.

“You’ve been… reading up on me, senpai?” He wasn’t too sure how he felt about that.

“No shit!” The Ultimate Yakuza belted out a laugh. “You’re Kirigiri’s pet. Gotta keep tabs on all her connections. Bad for business if I don’t do that much.”

Bad for…? Oh. Ohhh.

Oh dear.

“Don’t tell me the only reason you took me…!” Makoto exclaimed, flabbergasted.

Fuyuhiko’s grin widened.

“Was to screw with that Detective bitch? Don’tcha think it’s more interesting this way?” The yakuza then frowned thoughtfully. “Don’t misunderstand. Yeah, you’re the bait, but you are a pretty interesting guy, or so I hear. So I wanted to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth. So… spill. Tell me about yourself.”

Remember how he was used to these kind of things happening on a regular basis at Hope’s Peak? … He takes it back. He takes it aaall back…

Bonding with the Ultimate Yakuza was the last thing he imagined he’d be doing today. And while he was concerned his friends would be overreacting in his absence, Makoto just didn’t have the heart to turn the yakuza down… His intentions weren’t pure, but he did seem genuinely interested, y’know?

“I thought you were better than this, Kuzuryu.” Kirigiri deadpanned, waltzing into the dining room a few hours into the ‘party’… She didn’t look happy, and Makoto couldn’t blame her.

Fuyuhiko stared blankly at the Ultimate Detective before pointing at the luckster in disbelief.

“You hear the shit he gets into, Kirigiri?! His luck’s not bullshit like Komaeda’s, but damn!”

The detective scowled moodily at the yakuza.

“He’s my classmate, Kuzuryu. I know firsthand what kind of trouble he can get into.” She made a vague gesture around them in spite.

Fuyuhiko just continued staring blankly at the Detective, seemingly still processing the stories Makoto had shared with him.

“You would, wouldn’t you… And you still make him your little pet assistant. Holy shit.” The blond waved casually. “You guys can go! I’m still processing that shit. Hot damn… Wait ‘til Peko hears about **this** …”

Rather than drag it out like Fuyuhiko had contemplated doing at the start of the day, he jumped to his feet casually and walked out of the room blankly like he hadn’t kidnapped a teenage boy on his birthday just to screw with his detective friend’s head. It was like **he** got screwed with instead!

Kyoko turned to the luckster and arched an eyebrow curiously.

“What did you tell him?”

Makoto shrugged and gestured helplessly.

“Anything and everything, really!” Not the confidential stuff, of course – the luckster could keep a secret when it counted, and Kirigiri knew that.

“Like…?” The detective prompted, wanting at least a vague idea of what would overwhelm Kuzuryu like that. It could prove to be handy information if she ever wanted to get back at the yakuza…

“W-Well, like the incident that got me into Hope’s Peak!” The luckster gave as an example. “Or the time Oowada took me out riding that one night… Or when Togami invited us to one of his family’s private islands… I think I even talked about that case I helped you on a couple weeks ago? The one involving the Pomeranian?”

… That would do it. Kyoko was still coming to grips that the events of that case had actually happened… And it really opened her eyes to how unpredictable Makoto’s luck could be. Truly. She would never underestimate the power of luck after that.

“… Let’s go home.” Kyoko closed her eyes calmly and took the luckster by the hand.

“B-But… What about the others? Are you sure they’re not out looking for…?” He was cut off a little more forcefully by the detective.

“Let’s **go home** , Naegi.”

She was not tempting fate… not again. They could reel in their wayward classmates another day. One that didn’t happen to celebrate Naegi’s birth… They’d be safer tomorrow. … Probably.

~*~

Mukuro scowled darkly as she exited the alleyway. Figured that she had tailed one of the useless decoy groups. The Kuzuryu Clan was wising up, to slip in decoys that had no idea of where their target had been whisked away to. But by the same token, that made them much, much more moronic…

Because if she had to tear the Kuzuryu Clan apart to find and take back Naegi-kun… Well, that meant they had asked for it, right? Karma, she believed it was called…

Mukuro owlishly blinked as she saw the Ultimate Writer swinging around a nearby light pole merrily. What’s more, her tongue was hanging out as her face was split in a wide grin, and a pair of scissors were in her free hand that wasn’t clutching the pole as she swung around…

Oh.

Fukawa seemed to vibrate with energy as she caught the soldier out of the corner of her eye. She swung around a few more times before using the momentum to launch herself over to Mukuro, backflipped in the air three times, and landed in a crouched position just a few feet away from her.

“Weeell, well, well, well, well!” Fukawa stood up to her full height, grinning and making a random gesture. “If it isn’t the Sullen Samurai~! What’re **youuuuuu** doing in this random neck of the woods~?”

Mukuro schooled her features and half-turned away from the girl that she knew was deranged serial killer. Instincts told her to keep Naegi-kun’s status a secret from Genocide Jack, if only because the serial killer’s ‘help’ in the search would do anything but achieve her goal… But she couldn’t just avoid saying anything, either. Genocide Jack would just keep hounding her mercilessly until she got the answer for the desperate search…

“I’m looking for someone.” The soldier flatly replied, keeping her gaze averted. She knew Genocide Jack wouldn’t care either way. The sooner they were done with this conversation, the sooner Mukuro could pick up Makoto’s trail again.

Jack just tilted her head crudely.

“Huuuuuh~? Don’t tell me Big Mac’s on someone’s cutting board **again**?!”

Mukuro whirled on the serial killer furiously.

“What do you mean **again**?!” The soldier hissed darkly. She might not have been around all the time like she should have been, but damnit if Hagakure was trying to sell Naegi-kun’s organs again…!

Jack casually crossed her arms and snipped her scissors twice.

“Big Mac’s always in somethin’ or other~… When I say cutting board, I mean it like usually in a proverrrrrrbial sense, like Big Mac pissed off the wrong crowd and was gonna get a tongue-lashing~…” She clutched her sides and busted out a spittle-filled laugh. “But you’re telling me he’s actually gonna get something chopped off?! Please let it be the ahoge! I want it to be the ahoge~! GYAAAHAHAHA!”

Mukuro’s stormy expression remained as her scowl tightened and she turned away once more. She’d tipped her hand… Damnit. Figures she couldn’t keep a secret when it mattered.

“It doesn’t concern you… Stay out of this.” She tersely instructed the serial killer. Mukuro knew it was likely futile… but she wasn’t in the best of moods today, and she just knew Genocide Jack would make it worse if Naegi-kun got hurt because of that crazy bitch.

Jack abruptly cut off her laughter. She pointed her scissors at Mukuro accusatorily.

“Doesn’t concern me?! **Heeeeeeey**! We’re all in this slippery slide into madness together, Missy! You got the hots for Makyutie, and that means I gotta help you, the Princess Charming, rescue the damsel in distress that is Big Mac! **Love slaughters all** , as I always say!”

Mukuro gritted her teeth, turning farther away.

“I don’t… love him.” The soldier bitterly snapped, voice tight. “He’s my friend!”

Jack stared at her deadpan, eyes clearly unimpressed and unconvinced. She placed one hand on her hip.

“What’s repressing it gonna do, Sullen Samurai?! The more ya bury yourself, the more explosive you’re gonna burst out later! Take it from someone who knows~… Gloomy thinks she can put me on a leash and call it a day, but I don’t work a 9-5 gig, Wolfie! The sooner you accept those hot, passionate, lustful feelings for Makyutie’s Big Mac, the sooner the universe balances! Don’t fight it, unless you wanna go nuts~… Not the ballsy kind of nuts, though – at least you can suck those off. But the nutsy nuts. Squirrelhouse nuts.”

Yet Mukuro stopped listening a while ago to Jack’s ramblings. She scrambled up the side of the nearest building, and glared down at the serial killer from the rooftop.

“Don’t follow me. And stay away from Naegi-kun.” With those parting words, Mukuro took off sourly.

Genocide Jack stared after the soldier before bursting out into crazy laughter again.

“Oh yeah… She’s totally gonna snap~! GYAAAHAHAHA!” After clutching her sides and busting out the insane laughter for a few moments, she lowered her arms again and snipped her scissors thrice. “… But it’s. Like. I. Said. Mukuro-darrrlingggg… You can’t monopolize the madness all for **yourself**! It belongs to **everyone**! Wait for me, Big Mac! I’mma comin’ to fuck shit up~! GYAAAHAHAHA!”

With that ominous declaration, the serial killer followed the route Mukuro took and tailed her like a woman possessed.

At least one thing was absolutely certain… Life… had never been crazier~… And it wasn’t going to slow down for any of them. Many more memories would come and go, in the year and a half they had remaining before the world would go to Hell. Precious, irreplaceable memories. All lost to a psychopath’s dystopic vision for the future… Lost, and never to be reclaimed…

… Or so they thought… They, the seven survivors of the Killing Game. The remnants of a class that had, at one time, been as thick as thieves…

In the end, who knows what the future would bring? Forces beyond their comprehension were already at work behind the scenes, lifting the curtains on the next performance… One riddled with a deeper despair than they had encountered, an abyss of darkness they had only peered into with their own trials and tribulations… But one filled with just as much shining, unyielding **Hope**.

Perhaps Junko hadn’t been so far off the mark when she said Hope and Despair were different sides of the same coin…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... The characters needed this. Yes, the seven survivors have a lot to struggle through yet. But at least in the past, they could be HAPPY~... Them, and those that died so they could live...
> 
> Life is... simply unfair. Don't you think...? 
> 
> With that, I lay down my pen for the first half of this duology. My full attention is now on that tantalizing second half~... Class 78, it was an honor. But now we must make room for that kooky Class 77. :3 But don't fret... You will still have your moments. Shape the future with your senpai~ n_____n 
> 
> And Muku... Muku-darling. I look forward to your continued journey. I haven't had enough. Not nearly enough, darling~ It will all be worth it, my sweet... :D 
> 
> To all of you guys that stuck with me to the end here, thanks! After the hell I put you through with Chapters 4 and 5, you needed this fluffiness, too. I wish there was more time for each of these characters... But I'll say it again: 16 is a fairly big cast. And I'm about to tackle an even bigger cast with the next act of this little play. Are we all having fun yet? :3


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